Atlanta Braves Off-Day Rulebook Fail (Reds/DBacks)

Aug 9, 2015; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks left fielder David Peralta (6) dumps bubble gum over Arizona Diamondbacks second baseman Chris Owings (16) after defeating the Cincinnati Reds 4-3 in ten innings at Chase Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

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I have occasionally sniped at a few things in the official rule book of baseball.  There are some things in it that just don’t make a lot of common sense, and umpires are occasionally allowed to making curious rulings because too much latitude is permitted in that rule book.

Among those things include Infield Fly rulings and certain obstruction calls.  I have written about these in the past, and thus won’t belabor the points on either one today.

My complaint today involved an end-of-game situation that came up as a result of the Reds-Diamondbacks game yesterday, one in which the DBacks walked-off the Reds 4-3 in 10 innings.  In reviewing the reports of the game, almost none of them had enough information to satisfy my own curiosity, so I did my own investigation.

The Situation

Bases loaded, tie game, one out.  Oddly enough, that last detail – “one out” – turned out to be fairly crucial.

Chris Owings drives a ball deep to left center field, one hopping it to the wall.  The Reds had a drawn-in outfield that was attempting to defend against a short sacrifice fly ball, so once they saw the ball over their heads, the long walk-off to the dugout started.

Paul Goldschmidt scores, Owings tags first, celebration ensues.

Not so fast.

The play-by-play line reads as follows:  “Owings singled to deep center, Goldschmidt scored, Peralta to third, Lamb to second.”

Except that this isn’t exactly what happened.  Neither David Peralta nor Jake Lamb actually reached those bases.

Don’t forget that in a bases-loaded situation, every fair ball not caught results in a ‘force’ situation – all runners with a following runner are ‘forced’ to advance to the next bases.  Failure to do so results in an out, and force-outs have their own implications (as opposed to ‘tag’ outs).

At least that what we’ve always believed that the rule indicates.

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