Major League Baseball’s head-scratching home-plate obstruction rule has claimed yet another victim.
Just about one week after Miami Marlins manager Mike Redmond lost his mind over an overturned call at home plate, Chicago White Sox manager Robin Ventura had a similar nutty blowup Wednesday in San Francisco.
The White Sox appeared to have gunned down a runner at the plate after a chopper to first base. The runner easily was tagged out by White Sox catcher Tyler Flowers, and it appeared to be a rather pedestrian 3-2 putout at the plate.
However, Giants manager Bruce Bochy popped out of the home dugout and had a discussion with the umpires. Bochy ultimately decided to challenge the play, saying Flowers illegally blocked the plate. Shortly thereafter, the umpires ruled the runner indeed was safe, calling Flowers for obstruction.
That didn’t sit well with Ventura, who quickly left the dugout and gave us one of this season’s best manager meltdowns.
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Ventura actually was unsuccessful in challenging a similar play at the plate Wednesday night. There has been plenty of fuss this season over Rule 7.13, which states “a runner attempting to score may not deviate from his direct pathway to the plate in order to initiate contact with the catcher (or other player covering home plate).”
“You look at the spirit of the rule of what they’re trying to do and what it’s actually doing, and it’s a joke,” Ventura said, according to the White Sox’s website. “It’s a tossup every time a play happens at home plate. We just didn’t handle the rest of it, but playing baseball, we made the play. They don’t take into consideration that the guy was out by a long shot. I obviously don’t agree with it.
“We got hosed today.”
The overturned call tied the score at 1 in the seventh inning, and the Giants went on to score seven times in the frame on their way to a 7-1 win.
