Unusual plays

Lose Remerswaal

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Friend of mine sent me this question:

On June 13, in the Blue Jays blowout win over the Sox (18-4), Red Sox "Pitcher" Marwin Gonzalez made the last out of the 8th inning for the Sox. In the 9th, Red Sox "pitcher" Christian Arroyo led off by making the first out of the inning.

He believes it is the first and only time) that a team has had their pitchers come to the plate back to back. He told me he sent it to Elias who said they couldn't verify something like that.

Any ideas?
 

Humphrey

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That had to have happened in the NL or in the AL pre-1973. Most likely in a blowout where the team in question didn't care if they put up two bad hitters in a row. Or, in some situation where an injury early in the game necessitated some kind of unusual substitution.
 

Heating up in the bullpen

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Calhoun should've taken one for the team and let that throw from the first baseman hit him. He was running within the baseline; no reason he had to duck out of the way. And then he ducks again on the return throw! Ty Cobb is spinning in his grave. (When he was running the bases, Cobb was known for following the eyes/glove of a fielder about to catch a throw that might get him out, and would intentionally try to get hit by the throw. Old school.)
 

santadevil

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Calhoun should've taken one for the team and let that throw from the first baseman hit him. He was running within the baseline; no reason he had to duck out of the way. And then he ducks again on the return throw! Ty Cobb is spinning in his grave. (When he was running the bases, Cobb was known for following the eyes/glove of a fielder about to catch a throw that might get him out, and would intentionally try to get hit by the throw. Old school.)
The Diamondbacks need a complete overhaul with all these terrible, bone-headed plays this year
New management, new coaching staff. Someone needs to wake these professionals up
 

Yelling At Clouds

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I’m starting to think the Red Sox dodged a bullet by not replacing Farrell with Luvollo. No, no need to look up what I may have said about this topic, I assure you I was correct about it…
 

Heating up in the bullpen

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He fell down, but once he got to his feet, he went to grab his helmet rather than continuing to first. He could have made it safely even with the tumble because the catcher wasn't looking initially. Here's video of only Calhoun during the play.

View: https://twitter.com/CamCox12/status/1416884892416180227
That video is awesome! I've already watched it 20 times, and I think I could watch it all night. As Bugs Bunny would say, "What a maroon!" Looking at the catcher and fumbling for his helmet. Sheesh.
 

Lowrielicious

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That is some big brain stuff there.

Edit: In the explanation on how to avoid this if you are the defense. What happens in this scenario?
Pitcher steps off and tries to run the runner back to third, runner stops halway down the line waiting for a tag (to get tagged out and lost chance at appeal). Pitcher throws to third to execute the appeal and the runner runs home (assuming runner beats a throw from 3B to the plate, which I expect they would if they broke immediately). Does the appeal continue but the run scores anyway? dead ball if the appeal is successful and runner goes back?
 
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Pablo's TB Lover

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What would have been a double nut punch is if the 3rd baseman had to throw home and the catcher was in front of the plate and got called for obstruction.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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That is some big brain stuff there.

Edit: In the explanation on how to avoid this if you are the defense. What happens in this scenario?
Pitcher steps off and tries to run the runner back to third, runner stops halway down the line waiting for a tag (to get tagged out and lost chance at appeal). Pitcher throws to third to execute the appeal and the runner runs home (assuming runner beats a throw from 3B to the plate, which I expect they would if they broke immediately). Does the appeal continue but the run scores anyway? dead ball if the appeal is successful and runner goes back?
It looks to me like when the 3B receives the throw from the pitcher, he steps on the bag in the process of starting to chase the runner. If he did, shouldn't that be the appeal? Then by completing the play and tagging the runner, that is the third out and inning over. Or, like you say, the umpires can declare the ball dead after the appeal and send the runner safely back to third and he's there with two outs and the score back to 3-2.

It is indeed a weird quirk that the Astros can trick their way out of the appeal taking the run off the board, but it's a strange sacrifice to give up the go-ahead run when he's on third with less than two outs, if it was really intentional.
 

edoug

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Two things prevented it from being an appeal play. You can't appeal during a live play and the umpire needs to know it is an appeal.
 

Lowrielicious

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It is indeed a weird quirk that the Astros can trick their way out of the appeal taking the run off the board, but it's a strange sacrifice to give up the go-ahead run when he's on third with less than two outs, if it was really intentional.
Astros have seen the replay at that stage so they know they will lose the appeal. Which means the situation would be it is the tying run on third with 2 out (the fly ball is an out and the runner leaving early is the second out). The runner on 3 was never going to be the go ahead run. It's a no brainer to take the guaranteed run (and tied game) when you lay it out like that. The only risk is if the defense somehow knows what they are trying to do and play it perfectly as described towards the end of the video, which seems highly unlikely.
 

Lowrielicious

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Two things prevented it from being an appeal play. You can't appeal during a live play and the umpire needs to know it is an appeal.
That's how I always understood it also, but the "Real Time appeal" talked about in the video says otherwise doesn't it?
 

Heating up in the bullpen

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That is some big brain stuff there.

Edit: In the explanation on how to avoid this if you are the defense. What happens in this scenario?
Pitcher steps off and tries to run the runner back to third, runner stops halway down the line waiting for a tag (to get tagged out and lost chance at appeal). Pitcher throws to third to execute the appeal and the runner runs home (assuming runner beats a throw from 3B to the plate, which I expect they would if they broke immediately). Does the appeal continue but the run scores anyway? dead ball if the appeal is successful and runner goes back?
First off, I don't have an answer to the question asked by Lowrielicious.
I just want to comment that this loophole in the appeal process could easily be cleaned up in the rulebook. It's fundamentally stupid that attempting to make an appeal play should result in the inability to make the appeal. So the rule should be changed to something as simple as the pitcher calls time out then throws the ball to the base. The time-out, which seems to be implied but not stated in the rule requiring the pitcher to step off, then freezes the offense from doing anything to distract the appeal.
 

edoug

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That's how I always understood it also, but the "Real Time appeal" talked about in the video says otherwise doesn't it?
I did see the video but looking for a better video showing if he left earlier. Even though it appears both teams, apparently, thought he left early. I just plain forgot the real time appeal stuff.
 
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Rovin Romine

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First off, I don't have an answer to the question asked by Lowrielicious.
I just want to comment that this loophole in the appeal process could easily be cleaned up in the rulebook. It's fundamentally stupid that attempting to make an appeal play should result in the inability to make the appeal. So the rule should be changed to something as simple as the pitcher calls time out then throws the ball to the base. The time-out, which seems to be implied but not stated in the rule requiring the pitcher to step off, then freezes the offense from doing anything to distract the appeal.
Yes. Otherwise a non-appealing team with a man on base could void the appeal with any attempted (or successful) steal.
 

McBride11

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The 3b steps on the bag before throwing to get the runner. If he had yelled ‘appeal’ then made the throw, is all the stuff after called dead?
Since the P threw to the bag and the 3b stepped on it, this seems a kinda silly loophole as the ‘correct appeal process’ seems to have occurred before the rundown.
 

AB in DC

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The Nats gave up a run yesterday because they only recorded three outs in an inning. They should have recorded four.

https://sports.yahoo.com/nationals-pirates-fourth-out-rule-suwinski-mlb-221319598.html
So, what does that mean? Well, it states that Suwinski should have been out ... if the Nationals had simply appealed to any umpire and asked for him to be called out after stepping on the bag. Had they done so, Suwinski would have been called out as the fourth out of the inning.

But since the Nationals all left the field before anyone inquired about Suwinski and Suwinski crossed home plate before Park was tagged out, the run counted even though the inning was over. Had Adrianza simply touched third base instead of or before tagging Park, the run wouldn't have counted.
I've never heard this one before.
 

tims4wins

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Wow.

Is it not a force out though when the 3B steps on the bag? In other words, why is an appeal necessary? Is it because he tagged the other runner first? If he had stepped on the bag prior to tagging the runner, would the run not have counted?
 

BigJimEd

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Wow.

Is it not a force out though when the 3B steps on the bag? In other words, why is an appeal necessary? Is it because he tagged the other runner first? If he had stepped on the bag prior to tagging the runner, would the run not have counted?
Not technically a force out but in essence yes. The act has to be an obvious intent of appealing. If he had just stepped on the bag they would have considered that an obvious appeal to Suwinski leaving early. Either that or he could have stated he was appealing.

View: https://twitter.com/barrysvrluga/status/1542266448357343234
 

tims4wins

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Sad Sam Jones

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Emmanuel Clase got strike three on a pitch that ricochetted off the catcher's shin guard in the direction of the mound, leading to the seldom seen pitcher's assist on the strikeout. I'm not certain if the catcher gets an assist as well.
 

Harry Hooper

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Surprised this never got posted in July, but here's the story on the apparent first 8-5 triple play in AL or NL history.
 

Sad Sam Jones

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Already a couple of fun ones in the Guards-Tigers game to look up later:

• Andres Gimenez with a sliding stop on a grounder up the middle flipped the ball directly from the webbing of his glove to the shortstop covering, just beating the runner going to second.

• Next inning, Akil Baddoo got thrown out trying to steal second when Mike Zunino's throw struck him in the abdomen and deflected into the fielder's glove as he slid into the tag. I don't recall ever seeing that before.
 

Sad Sam Jones

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Yeah, when I first saw it, they only showed that original angle looking slightly from the first base side. The other angle clearly shows the point of impact.