The Tag

In the first article I see this morning, Adam Kilgore puts into words what I’ve been thinking:

On a technical level, Lobaton was out. In the spirit of the game, had the Cubs earned an out? Lobaton beat the tag, and an umpires’ eyes would have told him he remained safe. Replay made for a correct call. It didn’t make for a better call, unless what we want out of baseball is for players to be rewarded for keeping tags on baserunners and perfectly controlled slides.

This is an unintended consequence of replay rules. I would be fine if the rule was “the base cannot cause an out”, just like a fielder can’t push a runner off a base to tag him. In general, I’ll trade the bad call being corrected for this, but it’s easily fixed either through a different physical base or through a more thoughtful rule.

The replay wasn’t why the Nationals lost last night, but it certainly appeared to take the wind out of their sails.

It’s also another great example of the random nature of baseball. The Cubs won that game because a few more lucky breaks went their way. The grounder in the bottom of the first inning that gets Trea Turner at the plate. If that ball is a little to the left or right, Turner scores. The bloop hit against Max Scherzer by Ben Zobrist. Jayson Werth losing a ball in the lights. Anthony Rizzo swiping Jose Lobaton just as his foot popped off the base.

These were two great teams going at each other for nine innings in an incredible game. The game went 4 1/2 hours, but I didn’t want it to end. John Lackey and Tanner Roark were in the bullpen waiting to pitch into the morning, if the game was tied. For all that however, an umpire could have flipped a coin at the start of the game, and award the victory based on the toss.

The Cubs won, and now I’m looking forward to two more series as exciting as this one.

from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2yIFYUt