ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Clearly the Toronto Blue Jays were going to be frustrated, angry and pissed off at the way baseball’s new slide rule on double plays stripped them of a two-run rally in the ninth inning and hung them an unfathomable 3-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday night.
Every corner of the clubhouse buzzed post-game with discussion on why replay officials ruled that Jose Bautista’s actions as he slid into second base while Logan Forsythe tried to turn two “hindered and impeded the fielder,” and “did not engage in a bona fide slide as he did not attempt to remain on the base,” according to the replay ruling supplied to crew chief Mike Everitt.
But as much as there was anger, there was also confusion, serious confusion, over the intent of the rule, its application and what it means for the way the game is to be played. Trying to protect players makes sense, the rule as it was applied Tuesday does not.
“Are we trying to turn the game into a joke?” ranted manager John Gibbons. “I mean, really, that’s flat out embarrassing, that cost us a chance to win a major-league game. Was that the intent? Well that’s the result you’re going to get. I was talking to some guys in spring training, saying, ‘Wait ‘til it happens and ends a game.’ Truly an embarrassment. Baseball’s been a hard-nosed game, (Bautista) gets down in plenty of time, he’s going into a bag, there’s really no explanation for it. Wins matter in this business, and for that to come out like that, I don’t get it.”
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Blame Chase Utley, whose tackle slide that broke Ruben Tejada’s leg in the playoffs served as the catalyst for Rule 6.01(j), which says that runners should be called for interference if he doesn’t make a bona fide slide, which is described as such:
— (1) begins his slide (i.e., makes contact with the ground) before reaching the base;
— (2) is able and attempts to reach the base with his hand or foot;
— (3) is able and attempts to remain on the base (except home plate) after completion of the slide;
— (4) slides within reach of the base without changing his pathway for the purpose of initiating contact with a fielder.
Bautista’s slide into second on Edwin Encarnacion’s chopper to third clearly qualifies as bona fide under criteria one, two and four, while under three, he finishes off the bag as his momentum carries him through.
When told part of the ruling included his not making an attempt to remain on the base, Bautista replied: “I was already out, why is there a need for me to stay on the bag? Common sense has to come into this at some point.”
As for actions that “hindered and impeded the fielder,” during his slide it looks like Bautista attempts to reach for Forsythe’s legs. But players were also instructed to not have their hands up while running.
“I know I’m not going to put my hands on the ground and risk injury, so I just let instinct take over,” said Bautista. “Did I reach out to make him avoid me? Perhaps. Does that mean it’s an illegal slide? I don’t know. My feet were aiming straight at the bag, I feel like I was within reach, I slid directly to the bag, I didn’t go directly at him. As far as I understood, I was assuming contact was still OK and obstructing his path was still OK, as long as you stay within reach of the bag and your feet were headed toward the bag. I feel like I respected the rule, like it was a clean slide and it’s just disappointing and somewhat embarrassing to lose a major-league game (that way). …
“Common sense has to come into this at some point, I haven’t seen that being talked about even once since Chase Utley unfortunately injured another player,” Bautista added later. “It’s harsh for us as players to deal with such a huge adjustment on rules that have been around for so long. I don’t know. We can’t throw our hands up (during a slide), I’m not going to get hurt, what am I supposed to do with my hands? I don’t understand. I feel like I slid directly at the bag, I could have done much worse. And I chose not to. I don’t know what to say. The disappointing thing is we never find out who actually made that decision. … Everybody has to be accountable for their actions on the field, including the umpires, it’s just a cowardly way to hide.”
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The rule states runners who engage in bona flide slides won’t be called for interference when making contact with the fielder “as a consequence of a permissible slide.” A runner cannot make contact “by elevating and kicking his leg above the fielder’s knee or throwing his arm or his upper body.”
Any interference ruling leads to both runners being called out.
Apparently, the arm motion by Bautista was the violation that hindered the fielder. Not that the Blue Jays saw it that way.
“I’m confused now,” said catcher Russell Martin. “From that slide, I see a guy sliding right through the bag, and I remember they talked about not having your hands up and I know his hands were on the side, but he maintained the slide and it didn’t look like there was an action that took him outside of the line. He wasn’t going one way and moved his whole body to make contact. He maintained that hand position throughout the slide and (Forsythe’s) foot just happened to be there. If you can’t have your hands up, and you get penalized for having your hands down, what do you want us to do? Honestly, what do you want him to do different there? Normally when you do something wrong, there’s an explanation, and then, ‘OK, OK, I did this wrong,’ and you learn from it. Now it’s just, what do you do? Right now, I’m confused. Next time I go to second base, what am I doing? I honestly don’t know what to do.
“In hockey you have a penalty, the referee is like, ‘Two minutes for hooking.’ You hooked the guy. In this situation, you’re out, you’re out, game’s over, what happened? What did he do wrong? Tell us what he did wrong so we don’t do it again. It’s like you’re penalized, and there’s no answer.”
Martin remembers the growing pains in 2014 when Major League Baseball instituted a rule preventing catchers from blocking the plate, and sees parallels with the new slide rule.
“I don’t know how many times we’re going to see an incident like (the Bautista play), but I guarantee you can see that same slide in two months and it’s not going to be called, I guarantee you,” said Martin. “The same thing happened to me with the catcher’s rule. I was in Pittsburgh, there was a force play at the plate, they called me for blocking the plate on a force play. A week later they changed the rule, and got it right. Now, you’ve got a guy sliding right over the bag, his foot hits the bag, then his leg goes over the bag, his butt goes through the bag, that’s like exactly what we were seeing in the videos. The other way is he slides with cleats into the guy’s legs and then puts his hands out, and that’s better? That guy could have been injured right there if he slides inside with the cleats. Come on man. Cleats into the ankle instead of the hand? You can’t have your hands high? You have to have them somewhere. That’s just the way I see it.”
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Trouble digesting what had just happened was all over the Blue Jays clubhouse.
“I’m still trying to grasp what happened,” said shortstop Troy Tulowitzki. “I don’t understand everything well enough to comment on it.”
“It’s frustrating,” said Encarnacion. “All these new rules they’ve been (making), sometimes we don’t know how to play this game now. … They took (away) one game from us. That’s why we get frustrated.
“They said we can’t slide with our hands up, you have to put your hands down. That’s the way Bautista did it. So I don’t know. … Right now I’ve got read the new rule again, because I’m a little confused right now.”
After the replay ruling came down, Gibbons ran out on the field to argue. There was no point, as Everitt, could offer no explanation, and later speaking to a pool reporter, was instructed to limit his comments to the replay ruling.
Bautista didn’t bother trying to ask for an explanation, either.
“At that point the game is over, I would be risking getting ejected or suspended,” he said. “It’s not like I’m on their good side anyway.”
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Gibbons described the incident as baseball’s nightmare scenario.
“I guarantee they were scared to death it was going to happen and it happened,” he said.
“Crap, all that matters is we had a chance to win. We’re in the ninth inning, we take the lead, we battled to get into that position and you’re going to end the game like that? Really, it’s a joke, it’s a shame. I get the intent, you go after somebody, you’re going to hurt somebody or what have you because of the Utley play, I get that. But that’s good baseball. That’s been baseball forever. Maybe they want him to run and get out of the way, I don’t know. I’ll leave it at that.”
