Brandon Brown
A bad season for the Chicago White Sox turned a bit controversial on Thursday. The White Sox opened the series with the Baltimore Orioles (BAL 8, CWS 6), which in itself is not unusual. The Orioles are good, the White Sox are not. The result was as expected. What’s unusual is the way the game ended, with an interference call that left even the O’s confused.
Setting the stage: Baltimore took an 8-2 lead into the ninth inning, although Jonathan Heasley and Yennier Cano messed up – the first six White Sox players to hit reached base in the ninth – and Chicago put up four runs in the frame . Craig Kimbrel entered with runners on first and second and one out. Andrew Benintendi represented the tying run at the plate.
Kimbrel got Benintendi to hit a pop-up into the infield, and since there were two runners on base and two forced outs in play, the infield fly rule was applied. Textbook. What happened next was what got weird: Andrew Vaughn, the second runner, was ruled to have interfered with shortstop Gunnar Henderson, who caught the pop-up and had no trouble getting under it.
Vaughn was criticized for the interference and that made it a double play late in the game. Here is the video. It’s as weak a jamming call as you’ll see:
MLB Rule 6.01 covers interference and says that a runner who is “deemed to have hindered a fielder who is attempting to make a play on a batted ball is out, whether it was intentional or not.” By the letter of the law, Vaughn committed interference even if it was unintentional. It seems like an exaggeration to say that he hindered Henderson, but the rule is the rule.
“So there doesn’t need to be contact,” third base umpire Junior Valentine, who made the interference call, said after the game (via MLB.com). “If he gets in the way of a defender trying to field a batted ball, intent is not necessary and it is interference.”
O’s manager Brandon Hyde admitted he was confused by the play and “I felt like we escaped there” after the game. Here’s what Vaughn said about the play (via MLB.com):
“They didn’t tell me anything, actually. They just said I was out,” Vaughn said. “I was reading the play, I saw the pop-up, I knew it was a fly on the field. I read it, I started coming back and he kind of passed me on the right side. And then yeah, he made the play and the referee called me outside .”
…
“He passed me. He said something like ‘get out of the way’ or something like that. And I was going back to the bag,” Vaughn said. “I do not know where he is. I don’t know what other decision, I would like an answer to that.”
White Sox manager Pedro Grifol acknowledged that the decision was correct. His problem is with the rule itself. “Their shortstop had plenty of time to catch the baseball… He wasn’t trying to stop Gunnar from catching the ball. He wasn’t doing that. It had nothing to do with how the umpires called the play. I just I have a problem with the rule,” said Grifol (via MLB.com).
Again, by the letter of the law, it is interference. Vaughn got in the way of Henderson. At the same time, it’s a pretty soft decision. Henderson had more than enough time to camp under the pop-up, which didn’t even need to be caught because the batter is automatically out under the infield fly rule. Does this fall within the spirit of the interference rule? Ah, perhaps, but common sense dictates that Henderson was not harmed.
Had the interference not been called, the White Sox would have had runners on first and second with two outs and rookie catcher Korey Lee on base against Kimbrel. Lee went 0 for 4 that night, although his four home runs are third on the White Sox. The win improved the O’s to 30-18. The White Sox have the worst record in baseball, 15-36.
