ST. LOUIS — Jarrod Saltalamacchia said that he still did not know the rule that put him and the Boston Red Sox in a 2-1 deficit in the World Series, and gave the St. Louis Cardinals a 5-4 victory in Game 3 on Saturday night at Busch Stadium.
So, here it is, Rule 7.06(a)—Obstruction :
"When obstruction occurs, the umpire shall call or signal 'Obstruction.' If a play is being made on the obstructed runner, or if the batterrunner is obstructed before he touches first base, the ball is dead and all runners shall advance, without liability to be put out, to the bases they would have reached, in the umpire's judgment, if there had been no obstruction. The obstructed runner shall be awarded at least one base beyond the base he had last legally touched before the obstruction. Any preceding runners, forced to advance by the award of bases as the penalty for obstruction, shall advance without liability to be put out."
With one out in the bottom of the ninth inning, Yadier Molina singled and pinch-hitter Allen Craig doubled, giving the Cardinals runners on second and third. The Red Sox brought the infield into position to make a play at the plate.
The next batter, Jon Jay, hit a ground ball to second baseman Dustin Pedroia, who threw home to put out Molina. Saltalamacchia, the Red Sox catcher, then threw to third base to try to get Craig for the third out. The throw was late and wide, actually hitting Craig in the arm and skittering into foul territory up the left-field line.
At this point, Craig got up and tried to run home, but Will Middlebrooks, having tried to dive to reel in Saltalamacchia's throw, was in his way. Craig tripped over Middlebrooks, and at this point, Joyce pointed at the tangled bodies and called obstruction.
Craig got up, stumbled on his way to the plate, and appeared to be out on a strong throw home from left fielder Daniel Nava, who had scrambled to fetch the ball. But home plate umpire Dana DeMuth signaled safe — because of the obstruction.
It's a rare call in any situation, because it's a rare set of circumstances — how many times do you ever see a team try for a 4-2-5 double play? — and rarer still in the World Series, as this is the first time a game in the Fall Classic has ended on an obstruction ruling.
The key part of the rule and the ruling is the part about "the bases they would have reached, in the umpires judgment, if there had been no obstruction." That is why, even after Joyce called obstruction, DeMuth had to keep watching the play. Craig was not out by much at home plate on Nava's throw. Without the stumble over Middlebrooks, he would have been safe.
"Our determination is whether or not he could have scored or not," Joyce said. "And Dana immediately came up with, he saw me make the call. And as soon as Craig slid into home plate, Dana immediately pointed down at me, knowing that we had obstruction and it impeded Allen to score the run, essentially."
Said DeMuth: "I'm going with Jim on it, so I determine when it ends at the end, about the obstruction, you know. It's Jim's call originally, but looking up there. I have to see the call, also, and agree with him. I have to know that it's obstruction."
The two teams, of course, had differing interpretations of what went down.
"How do you get out of the way when you're flat on your stomach?" Middlebrooks wondered.
There was no way he could. It didn't matter.
"The baserunner has every right to go unobstructed to home plate," Joyce said. "And unfortunately for Middlebrooks he was right there. And there was contact, so [Craig] could not advance to home plate naturally."
Adding to the drama was the fact that Craig was in only his third game back from a foot injury that kept him out nearly two months. He came away limping, and unsure if he would be able to suit up for Game 4.
"I was just kinda like, I gotta get home, and he was in my way," Craig said. "I couldn't tell you if he tried to trip me or not. I was just trying to get over him and score. ... My foot's a little sore. We're just going to see how it feels. ... That was the first time I've had to run full speed, and it was a little bit of an obstacle course out there."
The obstacle course was Middlebrooks, and even though there was nothing he could do to get out of the way, that fact did not matter.
"Intentional or not intentional, he just has to clear the path," said Joe Torre, MLB's executive vice president of baseball operations. "I know sometimes it's unfair because he's laying on the ground, but that's the way the rule is."
Red Sox manager John Farrell called it "a tough pill to swallow," conceding: "I guess by the letter of the rule, you could say it's obstruction."
The letter of the rule is all that really matters, but that was not enough to placate everyone, to say the least.
"I just cannot believe that you make that call from home plate," said Jake Peavy, the Red Sox's starting pitcher on Saturday night. "I'm beat. Beyond words. I don't know what to say. I think it's absolutely a crying shame that a call like that is gonna decide a World Series game. It's a joke. There's just no other way to say it. It's a joke if that call decides a World Series game that two teams are absolutely pouring their heart out on the field. There's just no other way to say it. It's a joke. I don't know how he's gonna go lay his head down tonight."
Note that Peavy said "from home plate," because as far as he knew, it was DeMuth who had made the call. As the second base umpire in Game 1, DeMuth blew a call when he said Pedroia was out on a force play even though Cardinals shortstop Pete Kozma never caught the ball. That call was overturned after a meeting of the umpires, and Mike Napoli followed with a three-run double that sparked the Red Sox to an 8-1 win.
Peavy wanted to see a similar meeting on Saturday.
"He's already proven that he cannot see things correctly, in Game 1," Peavy said. "Pretty obvious, standing four feet from it, he couldn't get the call right. Yeah, it would've been nice for them to have a meeting of the minds."
No meeting was necessary, though, because DeMuth was in agreement with Joyce all the way.
The interesting thing was that Peavy was not the only Red Sox player who thought DeMuth had made the obstruction call. So did Middlebrooks, who was the closest player on the field to Joyce when the call was made in less than emphatic fashion.
"I never heard Joyce," Middlebrooks said. DeMuth "just called him safe and then pointed toward third. After the tag."
Video of the play does show, though, that Joyce pointed and made the call. DeMuth still had to do his part and make the safe call at home because of the way the rule is written.
Once Middlebrooks and Craig got tangled, it was going to be a weird play and somebody was going to come away very upset. Obviously, Boston came up on the short end. In St. Louis, there was delirium.
"I was running around the bases," Jay said. "I'm just happy we won tonight. It's all about getting the win, so I was happy about that."
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