Disputed walk-off mirrors 2019 World Series call

HOUSTON – A ninth-inning implosion by the Astros, who made a pair of throwing errors that allowed the Nationals to score three times to tie the game, was only the start of a wild finish Wednesday night at Minute Maid Park. The Astros wound up pushing across a run in the bottom of the inning for a 5-4 walk-off victory, while Nationals manager Dave Martinez was steaming mad about a disputed call at first base on the game’s final play.

What happened?
With one out and the bases loaded in a 4-4 tie in the ninth, the Nationals implemented a five-man infield with Michael Chavis at first base, Ildemaro Vargas, Luis García and CJ Abrams in the middle infield and Jeimer Candelario at third. Righty reliever Hunter Harvey got Jake Meyers to ground into a forceout to Abrams, who fired the ball home to catcher Keibert Ruiz for the second out. Ruiz quickly fired the ball to Chavis, who had his left foot planted on the first-base bag and outstretched his left glove hand. The throw from Ruiz hit Meyers in the helmet. Meyers was called safe, and José Abreu scored the game-winning run for Houston as the ball rolled toward the outfield.

What's the rule?
Rule 5.09(a)(11) states: "A batter is out when: In running the last half of the distance from home base to first base, while the ball is being fielded to first base, he runs outside (to the right of) the three-foot line, or inside (to the left of) the foul line, and in the umpire’s judgment in so doing interferes with the fielder taking the throw at first base, in which case the ball is dead; except that he may run outside (to the right of) the three-foot line or inside (to the left of) the foul line to avoid a fielder attempting to field a batted ball."

Look familiar?
The Astros and Nationals were involved in a controversial runner’s interference call in Game 6 of the 2019 World Series in Houston. That night, then-Nationals shortstop Trea Turner was called out for interference. Running on a weak ground ball hit toward third base, Turner reached first at the same time as the throw. As it unfolded, Turner knocked the glove off then-first baseman Yuli Gurriel.

What the managers saw
Dave Martinez: "There it is, right there,” said Martinez, as he held up a photo of the play during his postgame news conference. “Take a look at it. Is that on the line? I don’t think so. I’m over this play, seriously. They need to fix the rule. This is what the umpire sees, that he’s running down the line? I’m tired of it. Tired of it. Fix it!

"I’m going to talk about how proud I am of the boys playing the way they played. They come back, they played their butts off to come back to get back in the game [and] we do everything right. But I’m proud of the boys, how they played. … I can’t do nothing about those umpires. I really can’t. Like I said, they need to take a look at that ... And that’s all I’m going to say about it. I’m done with it. If they’re not going to fix it, then we move on and that’s it. But the boys played really good. I’m proud of the way they played, they bounced back. Let’s come back tomorrow and go 1-0."

Astros manager Dusty Baker: “From where we were, our vantage point, I couldn’t tell. I think they were disputing if [Meyers] was in the baseline or not. That’s always the questionable call. Nobody really has the vantage point very good, except really the home-plate umpire. He said it was nothing, but the ball went off his glove, too. I really don’t know what happened, actually.”

What the baserunner saw
Meyers: “I was running up the line, and I knew it was going to be a close play. I know I collided with his glove, and I think that kind of sent the ball elsewhere. Not really sure. But I know we scored. We won. It’s good.”

What the defense saw
Ruiz: “I saw him running a little bit close in the grass. But I don’t want to put an excuse. I’ve got to make a better throw, and I feel really bad because we lost a really good game.”

Chavis: “It was pretty awkward. I think Keibert did a great job. I think he did it pretty much textbook. He received the throw out front, took a step to create a lane and made a good throw. As the ball’s coming towards me, I just see it’s getting kind of close to him. I’m not looking at the line, I’m just looking at how the play’s unfolding. I saw as he was getting close to my body, I tried to go up and around him, and I just made contact with his face. Once I hit him, the ball hit him in the head. So I asked the umpire, ‘Is that obstruction? Can we appeal that?’ He said since it happened in front of him, that it was the home-plate umpire’s call.”

The takeaways
Dominic Smith: “We’ve just got to close out really good teams. I think there’s been times all year where we’ve been close to beating good teams, and they’ve shown us what it really takes to be a good team. You can’t make mistakes, you’ve got to come through in big situations and you’ve just got to close them out. We’re just learning from it, we’re playing hard and it’s something that young ball clubs go through. We’re just going to keep working our butts off because that’s just in our identity.”

Meyers: “I was just trying to get to first to make sure we had another chance because I knew he was going home-to-first. I was kind of busting it down the line, and I wanted to get there. We ended up scoring off of the play and it ended up being great.”