"Jose Berrios was cruising through his outing until Brandon Lowe hit a ball to deep right field in which a fan reached over the fence to grab the ball, negating a chance for Blue Jays outfielder Nathan Lukes to make a play. As you can see in the video above the fan clearly reaches into the field of play and catches the ball."
"The official MLB rules state: 'In every case of spectator interference with a batted or thrown ball, the ball shall be declared dead and the baserunners can be placed where the umpire determines they would have been without the interference.' The rules go on to say, 'When a spectator clearly prevents a fielder from catching a fly ball by reaching onto the field of play, the batter shall be ruled out."
"To make matters worse, Umpiring Crew Chief Laz Diaz said on the mic, "It was fan interference, but it would have been a home run anyway." No one was really sure what that meant, including John Schneider who came out of the dugout to have a few words with Diaz following the call. It seems as if this was a rule that MLB replay consultants completely got wrong."
Toronto and Tampa Bay played in Tampa where Jose Berrios yielded a deep drive by Brandon Lowe that a fan reached over the fence to catch, preventing Nathan Lukes from making a play. Umpiring Crew Chief Laz Diaz called it fan interference but added the ball "would have been a home run anyway," prompting confusion among players and coaches. MLB rules require the ball to be declared dead and allow umpires to place runners where they would have been; when a spectator reaches onto the field and prevents a catch, the batter is ruled out. Limited camera angles at the venue complicated replay review.
Read at Jays Journal
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]