Rocco Baldelli started by describing the overturned call as “chickenshit” and got even more heated from there.pic.twitter.com/wrY2Yt4wE1
— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) August 7, 2022
Baldelli holding little back in his post-game presser today. Contrary to his suggestion, however, the same call was made just a couple days ago in a game between the Rockies and Padres. Here's a video of that play. The clip includes a primer on the rule itself, which is 6.01(i)(2). There is addended to the rule the following "comment" that persuades me the Twins and Rockies both got screwed:
A catcher shall not be deemed to have violated Rule 6.01(i)(2) unless he has both blocked the plate without possessing the ball . . . and also hindered or impeded the progress of the runner attempting to score.
Video of the play in today's Twins game is here, together with the real-time commentary of Dick Bremer and Glen Perkins. Twin managers have in my memory gone more woo-loo than Baldelli did today. I remember once Gene Mauch, having returned to the dugout after being ejected, started flinging bats onto the field at Fenway Park: video of that incident, here. Of course, Mauch had the enemy in front of him, whereas Baldelli's nemesis was some anonymous replay guy in New York City.
An unorthodox but somewhat plausible take on the loss today would be that the Blue Jays won because the baserunner they were granted in the top of the tenth did a better job than the one the Twins were granted in the bottom of the inning. The guy who scored the winning run for the Jays had alertly tagged and advanced to third on a fly to medium-deep center. Buxton made a strong throw, and the Twins challenged the safe call, but the runner made it. When the next batter hit another fly ball, he scored what proved to be the winning, if disputed, run. Max Kepler was our runner, and when the first batter, Jose Miranda, lifted a ball to fairly deep center, he failed to tag and advance. Two outs later, the game ended with him on third base.
Which reminds me that I'm a little puzzled by why Kepler doesn't seem to be the object of fan criticism to the degree that, say, Miguel Sano has been. Today Kepler was 0-for-4 and, despite never earning his way on base, still made a baserunning blunder in the tenth inning that may have cost us the game. For the season, he's batting .236 with 9 homers, 39 RBI, and an OPS of .714. Last year, he hit .211 with 19 homers, 54 RBI, and an OPS of .719. He's our everyday, 29-year-old right fielder.
It's hard to play baseball at the big-league level, but Kepler has also shown that he'd rather miss three games in Toronto than be vaccinated against COVID—and getting vaccinated is easy.
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