Another week of replay is in the books, and with the transfer rule clarified, that won’t be an issue anymore…well, we thought it wouldn’t be.
April 29th, Mariners vs Yankees – Zunino can hustle.
Mike Zunino is a catcher, and predictably doesn’t run too well. So when he has the opportunity to get an infield single, he’ll do whatever he can to get there – even if that entails Lloyd McClendon using his challenge. Replays revealed that Zunino was safe, and the slow-footed backstop managed to do something people in his position don’t get to do all that often.
April 30th, Dodgers vs Twins – what a slide.
You know, maybe the home plate collision rule isn’t such an awful thing – it’s leading to some really awesome slides at the plate, like this one by Dodgers catcher Drew Butera. Butera should have been out – the throw beat him to the plate. But some creativity with his slide and a sloppy application of the tag by Kurt Suzuki resulted in Butera being safe, which the replay confirmed.
April 30th, Blue Jays vs Royals – …oh, never mind.
Dioner Navarro was blocking the plate without the ball. There’s was no way for Eric Hosmer to touch the plate without getting creative. But he wasn’t called safe – the out call stood, and that was that. Makes sense.
May 1st, Dodgers vs Twins – not the transfer rule.
Dee Gordon dropped the ball at second base after having it in his glove. THE TRANSFER RULE STILL EXISTS! Well…not exactly. After review, the umpires ruled that Gordon didn’t drop the ball on the transfer, he dropped it on the *catch* – that’s still not a valid catch, even with the wonky transfer rule applications getting killed a couple of weeks ago.
May 2nd, Brewers vs Reds – HEY LOOK A YELLOW LINE
Everyone who reads this column on a regular basis knows how I feel about ballparks that don’t have a yellow line at the top of the outfield wall. When a ball is hit off the top of the wall, you can’t make anything out if there’s no yellow line. But the Reds *do* have a yellow line at Great American Ballpark, and in this case, it was unfortunate it for them. Joey Votto’s ball off the top of the wall was correctly ruled a double instead of a home run, and if that line wasn’t there, who knows if it would have been called correctly?
May 3rd, Blue Jays vs Pirates – a game changer.
I really don’t know if Josh Thole was safe or out here, but it *really* looked like Gaby Sanchez beat him to the bag. The safe call was upheld, and it really had a domino effect on the Pirates – Thole ended up scoring Toronto’s fifth run of the evening to chase Francisco Liriano from the game in just the fourth inning. After that safe call, Liriano threw 13 more pitches, which could have been another evening. The Pirates ended up wining the game, but I bet Clint Hurdle wasn’t too pleased about dipping into his bullpen that early, but at least the reliable (?!?!) Edinson Volquez starts tomorrow for Pittsburgh.
