And in today’s useless Sunday NFL stat, Chase Utley is apparently the second player ever to hit two homers in his first road game against a team he played at least 1,500 games for (Frank Thomas being the first).
Use this knowledge wisely.
Asimovian:
Does that apply to only fair balls? Because I know I’ve seen foul ball caught by fielders leaping into the stands (Alex Gordon in April 2015 comes to mind) and they were ruled outs.
Gordon catches the ball before he comes down out of play, so he is in play when the catch is made… The fielder is not out of play until he lands out of play. You can catch a ball and then go out of play; you cannot go out of play and then catch it.
You also cannot make a catch, go out of play, and then re-enter play to make a subsequent play. Had someone been on base when Gordon when out of play, the runners would have been entitled to advance a base ahead of any base they were going to; it would be as if Gordon had thrown the ball into the stands.
I sure felt that way after watching them lose to the Dodgers, 20-0, in September of 2014.
The surface of the fence and wall is or isn’t the ground depending on the rule being applied. It’s kind of weird and contradictory.
For instance, if a fly ball strikes the top of the outfield wall, then goes out of play, it is considered to have never touched the ground and is a home run. However, if it strikes the top of the wall and bounces back into play and is caught on the fly by a fielder, it is considered to have touched the ground, and is not an out. (This is assuming no unusual ground rules.)
Now, the obvious question, I guess, is where fan interference begins and ends. We know the space above the field of play is in play and is no go for a fan, and we know the space above the stands is anyone’s ball. But what about the space directly above the structure of the wall?
Well, it’s not super clear, but my reading of the Official Rules is that the space above the wall is fair game for a fan to catch a ball. The rule reads:
[QUOTE=Official Baseball Rules]
When there is spectator interference with any thrown or batted ball, the ball shall be dead at the moment of interference and the umpire shall impose such penalties as in his opinion will nullify the act of
interference…
However, should a spectator reach out on the
playing field side of such fence, railing or rope, and plainly
prevent the fielder from catching the ball, then the batsman
should be called out for the spectator’s interference
[/QUOTE]
I cut out a lot, but the comments on the rule, especially that last part, seem to pretty firmly imply that the fielder is only entitled to the space within the walls, not necessarily the space above it, for protection from fan interference.
Does this contradict the ruling that Rizzo is in play standing on the wall? I guess it might. The top of the fence/wall is a weird place in baseball rules.
In the last 2 days, the Cubs have put Chris Coughlin, Hector Rondon and John Lackey all on the DL.
That’s what you can do with the kind of lead the Cubs have and upcoming series against the Rockies and Padres
The Royals go 9-1 and make up basically no ground against Cleveland (7-3). I know they aren’t going to win the division (or likely make the wild-card), but come on!
If Cleveland somehow miraculously pulls off the unthinkable this season, I’m pretty sure Tyler Naquin’s face after the inside-the-park walk-off will be the image of the 2016 season. Even if I weren’t an Indians fan, I think the whole “ROCK!” expression would make me grin.
This is why I hate some sports writers. This idiot suggests that Jason Heyward should have not even been with the team when he was given a weekend off. Umm, yes, he’s struggling at the plate but he’s still a fine defensive outfielder. If the Cubs had needed him, they would have sent him into the game. Even a team with a 13 game lead doesn’t voluntarily play one man down.
Back before the trade deadline, a sports media pundit (on ESPN or Sports Illustrated, I forgets) was insisting the Indians needed to trade for another outfielder, in part because Naquin couldn’t possibly keep up his hitting for the remainder of the season.
Seems pretty steady so far.
They’ve picked up like 5 games on the WC during that stretch and have gone from essentially out of it to 3 games back with 38 to play. Picking up more ground on cleveland would be nice, but it’s all about the wild card. They can’t be considered favorites obviously, but as hot as they are, they’re definitely not long shots at this point anymore either.
Andrew Toles and Rob Segedin became the first Dodgers in history to hit back to back homers for the first homers of their careers. Add in 3 home runs from Adrian Gonzalez, another one from Corey Seager, and the Dodgers crush the Reds 18-9. Now if they can only hold the lead against the dog-ass Giants over the next 3 days.
So who do you like for AL MVP if the season ended today? Right now, ESPN’s WAR numbers are (1) Trout 7.9 (2) Altuve 7.4 (3) Betts 6.9 (4) Donaldson 6.3 (5) Machado 5.5
Do you go with Trout who is just the best player in the majors yet again? Altuve who’s having an incredible season for a winning team, but one that still fell short? Betts for being the best player on a playoff team?
Not Machado, just because he’s an asshole.
I find it odd that both Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant are mentioned in the NL MVP voting, but that the team’s MVP is Dexter Fowler.
When Fowler hit the DL, the team was winning at a .696 clip. The 26 games that he was gone, their winning percentage dropped to .384 (10-16). Once he rejoined the team, their play started improving to pre-injury levels.
I’m aware that another continued run in the ballpark of .696 is improbable (no pun intended, by the way). But a drop of over .300 between healthy and injured? How does he not at least merit being looked at?
True, because if you can’t put 9 men on the filed, you forfeit the game. You can’t play a man down like in soccer.
AL Player of the week Gary Sanchez is having a helluva debut with the Yankees. Now playing in only his 17th game, he has 8 home runs and is hitting. .391/.435/.844. He snatched the starting job from Brian McCann, who is now the full-time DH with A-Rod banished.
The playoff schedule is out. We’ve got just one shot at Snow-vember baseball, people.
The Red Sox are finally putting something together. Managed to enter into a tie for 1st place with Toronto. I think the Orioles are going to crash down to earth. They overachieved up to now.