Blog Archives
Balk This Ump! Andy Green Gets His $300 Worth After Ejection
Trey Rose (Featured BBBA Fantasy Baseball Writer/Owner – dynastydigest.sportsblog.com) Follow @dynasty_digest Follow @mlbreports
Last night, during the San Diego Padres versus the Pittsburgh Pirates game, things got a little heated after a controversial call. With runners on second and third base, Padres’ pitcher, Colin Rea, began his windup.
During his windup, Andrew McCutchen sprinted down the third base line to distract Rea, who sped up his windup towards home plate in fear that McCutchen was trying to steal home.
The Pirates’ bench erupted as they demanded the umpires call a balk against Rea, which they did. McCutchen touched home plate to go up 2-0 in the third inning.
After the decision to call a balk, the umpires then decided to overturn the call and made the runners return to their previously occupied base.
This decision was made after the umpires discussed that Rea was going from the full windup and there is no rule against speeding up your windup in order to release the ball faster, meaning there is no balk call.
Pittsburgh’s manager, Clint Hurdle, then came out of the dugout and demanded they talk this situation over again. After a third time of talking, the umpires the reversed the reversal of the call and signaled for McCuthen to advance and score off of the balk.
This decision was made after the umpires discussed the fact that Rea’s back foot jumped off the back of the rubber during his pitching motion, which constitutes a balk.
It’s fair to say that the Padres’ manager, Andy Green, was not very happy with this decision. To see his reaction and the balk, click the link below:
You must be logged in to post a comment.