The Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the New York Mets in extra innings during the series opener on Friday, but it wasn’t just any normal game. The long night at Citi Field included a rain delay and two obscure calls from the umpiring crew.
The most notable call of which came after starling Marte reached third base. Marte then tried to score on a sacrifice fly, but it appeared he was thrown out after Teoscar Hernández caught the fly ball and threw a laser to home plate. Instead, Marte was ruled safe due to third base umpire Tripp Gibson calling obstruction on Max Muncy.
Muncy did not touch Marte, nor did he stand in his path toward the plate. But Gibson ruled Muncy was obstructing Marte by standing in the line of sight and blocking him from seeing Hernández make the catch.
The MLB rulebook states it was the correct call, but it’s also hardly ever enforced in MLB, and one that hasn’t been seen in quite some time.
That call surprised Muncy, even though he knew the rule, via Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
“I know the rule,” Muncy said. “But every third baseman is taught – you kind of just wander over, and as long as you’re not standing right next to the guy, it’s never an issue. You don’t look at him. You don’t make sure you’re lining up your path. You just kind of walk over and you just stand there. I felt like I was far enough away.
“He felt that I wasn’t far enough away. He felt that I was purposely doing it, and he felt that I made a conscious effort to stand in the way. Every third baseman in the league does that. Never seen it called, and it was actually called twice tonight. He called it in the extra innings when (Andy) Pages had the sac fly, he actually called it on their guy, but it didn’t matter because our guy scored. It was called twice tonight. Haven’t seen it called my entire career.”
The first call that led to some confusion benefitted the Dodgers when Michael Conforto advanced on a tag-up play. On a fly ball hit to the gap, Mets outfielders ended up interfering with each other, which led to a bobble before the ball was caught. Conforto ran before Tyrone Taylor had actually caught the ball, so the Mets challenged that he tagged early.
After review, Conforto was ruled safe due to the rulebook stating a runner can advance as soon as the ball touches the glove, and not on the catch, as most believed. The rule seemed to surprise the Mets, who believed Conforto was not able to run until the catch was actually made.
Neither call ultimately mattered for the Dodgers as they went on to win 7-5 in the 13th inning, but the obstruction on Muncy may have helped get the game to extra innings, costing them more pitchers. Still, the Dodgers took a three-run lead into the ninth before Tanner Scott blew the save.
Max Muncy not ruled for error
Although obstruction is generally an error on the fielder, the official scorer ruled it Type 2 Obstruction, which means Muncy was not charged with an error.
He did, however, make a throwing error in the game. Muncy also went 1-for-4 at the plate with an RBI single.
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