HOUSTON — An otherwise dramatic World Series Game 6 hit an unwanted intermission with a questionable resolution Tuesday night at Minute Maid Park.
Will folks be talking about Anthony Rendon’s and Stephen Strasburg’s heroics on the field years from now, or about the protest delay heard ’round the world?
That the Nationals, the victims of the seventh-inning controversy, proceeded to win the game, 7-2 over the Astros, should soften the long-term damage and avoid it getting placed in the same category as Don Denkinger’s botched call in 1985 World Series Game 7 and Jeffrey Maier’s help on Derek Jeter’s home run (missed by Rich Garcia) in 1996 American League Championship Series Game 1. In the heat of the moment, however, the chaos — and its accompanying pause in play for about 10 minutes — overshadowed the game’s many other compelling elements.
With no outs, a runner on first base and the Nationals owning a 3-2 edge in the top of the seventh inning, Washington’s Trea Turner knocked a swinging bunt to the right side of the mound. Astros pitcher Brad Peacock picked up the ball and rifled it to first base, right into Turner’s path as he touched first base. The ball hit Turner and rolled into foul territory as Houston first baseman Yuli Gurriel lost his glove, and it appeared the Nationals would have men on second and third with none out.
Then home-plate umpire Sam Holbrook threw the night’s biggest curveball, calling out Turner for interference and ordering the runner, Yan Gomes, back to first base.
Afterward, Major League Baseball’s chief baseball officer Joe Torre defended Holbrook’s ruling.
“He interfered with the first baseman trying to make a play,” Torre said of Turner. “In fact, Gurriel’s glove even came off at that point in time. [Turner] did run to the fair side of the 45-foot line, but really the violation was when he kept Gurriel from being able to catch the ball at first base.”
“I didn’t know the rule,” Turner said. “I didn’t know what the explanation was.”
Judgment calls, as this was, are not reviewable. However, as Torre explained, “[W]hat I tell managers when we have our meeting on the first game of a series is, ‘If you think a rule was misapplied, go and ask the umpires to have a rules check.’ They can go to the headset.”
That’s what a livid Dave Martinez did.
Said the Nationals manager: “I know the rules. I know you can’t protest a judgment call. I wanted him to … just look at the play, and like a rule check … But part of me just said, ‘Hey, we’ll protest the game. I know we can. Just check the rules.’ And they did that.”
On the other side, meanwhile, Astros manager A.J. Hinch admittedly felt confused. “It’s not a reviewable call,” he said. “You can’t protest it. You can’t really do anything, and yet they go to the headset.”
Once they went to the headset, more than five minutes after the initial call, it officially took four minutes and 22 seconds to conduct the “rule check” with MLB’s replay center in Manhattan.
“It shouldn’t have been that long,” Torre said. “I don’t know if it was the noise or whatever it was. I know we had a hard line in our box and we had trouble reaching people because we tried to make some calls. We couldn’t do it. It should never be that long. That’s unfortunate. And certainly we have to take ownership of that.”
Ironically, the sequence of events seemed to throw off the Astros, even though they benefited from the call, more than the Nationals. Two pitches after the controversy, Rendon’s two-out, two-run homer increased Washington’s lead to 5-2.
“It took a really long time for nothing to happen,” Hinch said.
Even after that positive turn of events, Martinez came onto the field in the middle of the seventh inning, continued to argue and got ejected, with his coaches Chip Hale and Tim Bogar holding him back. Torre himself came onto the field after the seventh to talk things over with Holbrook. It was an extremely unusual, unwelcome turn of events in an otherwise sublime ballgame.
“I’m glad it didn’t have an effect on the game,” Turner said. “If that was the reason we didn’t win the World Series, that’s on us.”
