Tampa Bay Rays win a game with a bizarre walk-off interference call
The Tampa Bay Rays beat Toronto Tuesday on a bizarre play in which it looked like the Blue Jays had taken the lead in the ninth inning only to have the umpires look at the replay and change the play to a game-ending double-play for the Rays.
Down 3-2 in the ninth inning, the Blue Jays loaded the bases with one out and with Edwin Encarnacion at the plate. He hit a ground ball to Evan Longoria who threw to second base to try and start a double-play to end the game. However, Logan Forsythe threw the ball away on the turn and the Jays took a 4-3 lead.
Or at least, that is what appeared to happen.
A quick look at the replay seemed to show Jose Bautista reaching out with his left arm and grabbing the leg of Forsythe as he was throwing the ball.
In years past, umpires might have let this go. But Major League Baseball instituted new rules this year that require runners to not deviate from their path at second base. It sure seemed like Bautista deviated just for the sake of taking out Forsythe, something MLB is cracking down in the name of player safety.
The umpires went to the replay and ruled that, under the new rules, Bautista had interfered. This changed the play to a double-play and the game was over.
Jose Bautista tried to justify his slide by expressing that he could have done a lot worse.
"Common sense has to come into this," Bautista said after the game (via Marc Topkin). "I feel like I slid directly at bag. I could have done much worse and chose not to."
In the end, it was a walk-off, replay review, interference call.