Rule and scoring question

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Runner on first, no out ... hitter bunts, first baseman covers it and throws the ball to the second baseman covering first toward the safety base. The second baseman catches the ball and gets immediately run over by the hitter who had run to the safety base and was just barely beaten by the throw. Second baseman holds on to the ball but by the time she gets up the runner is on 3rd. There was some debate about both whether the girl was out, as well as to whether the runner obstructed.

Runner from 3rd then proceeds to score on a suicide squeeze by the next batter and they win 1-0. Newspaper was there and scored it as unearned run ... I had it as earned.

What should have been the call at first, and what is the scoring on the runner advancing to 3rd?

 

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I'll take a stab at it.

From your description it sounds as though the throw pulled the 2B to the safety bag, if that is the case the batter-runner has the responsibility to avoid contact and run to the white bag. If that was, in fact, the case, I'd rule the BR out for interference.

Since the 2B held on to the ball and the throw beat the BR she should have been called out regardless. The safety bag may be used by the fielder if the throw takes her there. In that instance it is the responsibility of the BR to use the white bag to avoid contact.

What did the umpire rule? Did he rule that 2B obstructed the BR or just incidental contact (live ball)? Was it a "bang, bang" play or a bad throw? Hard to say how to score it without this info.

Now I'll wait for Bretman to tell me the correct answer.

 

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I'll have to disagree with cshilt. The batter-runner can't predict where the throw is going to take the second baseman. The B-R can't even see the throw until the last second. If the first baseman delivers a throw on the safety side of the bag, that is the fault of the defense and any benefit of the doubt should go to the offense.

So I would rule incidental contact (which is a no call) and no error. Earned run and it sounds like the right call was made by the umpire. The second baseman should tell the first baseman to stop giving her hospital throws.

 

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I'd agree that if it was a bang-bang type play that no interference should be called, however an out can be made using the safety base. The description says that the throw beat the batter-runner and the 2B held onto the ball after contact. If true, I'd say blue made the wrong call on the play.

If incidental and the BR advanced while 2B was recovering from the contact I wouldn't score an error on the BR advancing. Earned run.

 

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This one is another of those "had to be there" sort of plays. The right call really depends on the timing of how the play at first unfolded. And the double first base complicates thing a bit, too.

The batter-runner seems to have been headed directly for the colored portion of the base. If so, then she is doing nothing wrong and is running in a perfectly legal manner. On this sort of play, with the ball coming from fair territory, the defense is obligated to use the white portion of the bag.

While a runner is generally expected to not crash into a fielder holding the ball, and to avoid contact if at all possible, on this play we have a case of the defense being where they are not supposed to be- on, or in front of, the colored base.

The only way this could be interference on the batter-runner is if she had lots of time to avoid the fielder but chose to crash into her anyway. That doesn't sound like the case here, as you say that she was "just barely beaten by the throw". If (and I'm just saying "if&quot the throw had beaten the batter-runner by a wide margin and she willfully and purposely crashed into the fielder, you would have interference, dead ball, batter-runner out and the other runner returned to her last base touched (which would likely be second base).

Another "what if" to throw in here- if the fielder had not touched the white bag, that would mean that the batter-runner was NOT retired before the interference. You would enforce the ruling as mentioned above. On the other hand, if the defense had touched the white bag, then the runner interfered, you would have interference by a retired runner. In that case, if the interference prevented the defense from making a play on the other runner, that runner (the one closest to home) would also be out!

Was this obstruction by the defense? Possibly, but there again you would have to see the play. If the defense is blocking the orange bag AND this blocking causes the runner to alter her path (ie: slow down, veer away or otherwise try to avoid the fielder before she has the ball), then you can have a case of obstruction. Just going by the description, it does not sound as if the runner altered her path, so it probably wasn't obstruction.

Back to the play at hand: Going through it step-by-step, and just by the information given, I would call this:

- No interference by the offense or obstruction by the defense.

- The batter-runner would be SAFE because the defense touched only the colored portion of the bag, not the white.

Result of play: Runners at first and third, no outs...send in the next batter! (And you can see, depending on a host of little details, that ruling could be completely different depending on who did what and when they did it.)

As for the scoring, I'm an umpire, not a scorekeeper! I'll let the folks that handle that answer your question. It might be relevant to know how the runner who started out on first, and eventually scored, reached first base in the first place. If she did not get on by virtue of an error by the defense, I would have to think this run would be earned.

 

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Thanks for the info, Bret. I don't mind being wrong if I'm learning something.

Bret, in what instance(s) is it acceptable for the defense to only use the safety bag to make an out. I was under the impression that an errant throw could pull the defense to that bag.

 

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cshilt checked in while I was typing my (long) post, so I just now saw it.

You are right- if the throw pulls the fielder into foul ground she may use the orange base to complete the play. From the description, I assumed that to not be the case. It sounded like F4 had set-up on the orange base to receive the throw. More "had to be there" stuff...

The other instance is when the throw is coming from foul ground (imagine a catcher fielding an uncaught third strike). In those two instances, either portion of the bag may be used by either team.

Even then, if it was an errant throw that pulled the fielder into foul ground, the runner is not REQUIRED to use the white portion. The rule says that she MAY then use the white bag. As Joe noted, it is almost impossible for the runner to know where the throw is coming from or if it is off-line. There is no way she could "know" to swith to the other bag, so she is allowed to but not required to.

As with many other calls, the devil is in the details. We would really need to know all these little details to know if we agreed with the call that was made.

 

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Thanks for the input on this. The throw was toward the safety bag and, as mentioned above, it just barely beat the runner so she didn't have much time to avoid the collision. The call was that the batter was out, and that there was no interference by the batter which allowed the runner to move to 3rd. Even though my team was on defense and ended up losing the game, I thought the umpires made the right call on this particular play ... now a few other calls they made in the game I am not going to bring up here!!