In yesterday’s Cleveland-Detroit game, Jose Ramierz was “hit by a pitch” and sent to first base. Cleveland took him out of the game as a precautionary move and sent in Gonzalez to pinch-run.
Then Detroit asked for a video review, and it was shown that the pitched ball hit Ramirez’s bat as he dropped it before it struck his arm so it was ruled a foul ball rather than a hit batsman.
So my question is, has the substitution of Gonzalez already taken effect. Could Cleveland have said, in that case, we want someone else to finish the at bat and the Gonzalez substitution never took effect so he could be put in defensively later?
It seems like that is the “fair” interpretation, but I’m not sure it’s covered by the rules. The only thing similar I know is when a game is replayed after a successful protest, any substitution after the protest is deemed not to have happened when the reply commences from the point of a protest.