As a casual fan I was confused my Joe Adell’s third HR preventing catch against the Mariners. He leaned over the fence and fell into the crowd while catching the ball. The commentators seemed to think as he fell outside the park it was a HR but it was ruled a catch. What is the rule that determines a catch or a HR, can a fielder jump over the wall and cat the ball 5 rows back? Would fan interferance be called if they get in the way? In cricket if you touch the ground on or over the boundary while holding the ball it is not a catch and I had assume baseball was similar (except you were allowed to touch / lean on the wall, but clearly that is not the case.
Haking 3 HR preventing catches in a game also seems pretty insane has that been done before.
Probably not, because, as The Athletic stated this morning, last season the league leader had four HR-robberies…in the entire season.
From the MLB rule book, in the definition of a catch:
A fielder may jump on top of or otherwise reach over a fence, railing, rope or other line of demarcation to make a catch, and may fall over the same after completing a catch. He also may climb onto or otherwise jump on top of a railing, fence or canvas marking the boundary of the field or that may otherwise be in foul ground to make a catch. However, a fielder may not step or jump into the stands, dugout, any other out-of-play area (i.e., over a fence or railing) in order to catch a fair or foul ball.
So a fielder cannot jump into the stands and then catch a ball. And it is not fan interference if the fielder reaches into the stands to try to catch a ball.
Toronto has played eight games. Relief pitcher Brendon Little already has a WAR of negative 1.1, while backup catcher Tyler Heineman has already made game losing errors in two games.
The injury outlook isn’t looking great for the Jays. Alejandro Kirk broke his thumb and will be out for a while. Cody Ponce is out for the year with a knee injury. That’s just what happened this week.
I feel worse for Cody Ponce than I do the team. Poor guy worked so hard in Korea for this chance.
I didn’t think this was going to be an especially good team anyway. A lot of pitching is due back soon, so they’ll be fine in the rotation. The loss of Kirk is very significant, though. The gap between him and any available backup is enormous.
Eh, I don’t buy it. Sure the Jays lost Bichette, but they added Okamoto and Cease. And they should have Yesavage for nearly a full season, barring any setbacks.
I haven’t forgotten that Toronto was 26-28 in late May last year and still won the division. A slow start in a handful of games doesn’t mean much.