David Ortiz eventually broke up Texas Rangers starter Yu Darvish’s no-hit bid against the Boston Red Sox on Friday night with two outs in the ninth inning. But according to Ortiz, Darvish’s no-hitter should have ended two innings before that.
Darvish’s bid for a perfect game ended with two outs in the seventh inning when Ortiz lifted a popup shallow into right field that dropped between Rangers second baseman Rougned Odor and right fielder Alex Rios. Darvish’s no-hitter remained intact, however, because official scorer Steve Weller scored the play an error on Rios — a ruling that Ortiz wholeheartedly disagreed with after the game and that MLB Network’s Harold Reynolds called the “worst ruling in Major League Baseball history.”
In the grand scheme of things, the controversial ruling doesn’t matter. The Rangers still rolled to an 8-0 win at Globe Life Park in Arlington, and Ortiz ended Darvish’s no-hitter by beating the Rangers’ infield shift for a single with two outs in the ninth. But the seventh-inning play certainly created some controversy, and Ortiz said during an MLB Network appearance after the game that he simply couldn’t understand how the play could be ruled an error on Rios, especially since neither player touched the ball.
Ortiz tipped his cap to Darvish, calling the Rangers ace “unbelievable.” Watch the video below to hear Big Papi’s reaction to Darvish’s near-no-hitter and his two cents on how dramatic infield shifts are changing baseball.
