Analyitics

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Obstruction!

The Boston Globe calls game 3 of the 2013 World Series a game that "will go down in history for its controversy."

Even though I'm a Red Sox fan, I don't see why there should be any controversy.  The only thing that made the obstruction call unusual is that it happened at third base instead of second.  But regardless of where he is on the diamond, baserunner has the right to advance along the basepaths without anything (other than a defensive player who has the ball) getting in the way.

Will Middlebrooks was lying in the basepath in front of Allen Craig.  It doesn't matter that he didn't intend to be there.  It was his responsibility to be out of the basepath, or to face the consequences.  That's a risk he took when he dived across the basepath to try to field Saltalamacchia's bad throw.


One wonders what Saltalamacchia was even doing in the game.  Reliever Brandon Workman entered the game in the eighth inning, and then came to the plate to hit at the top of the ninth with the game tied.  But Workman didn't need to be batting at that key moment.  If Farrell had pulled a double switch, he could have put Workman in for Saltalamacchia in the 7-spot, and inserted Mike Napoli into the 9-spot.  Then, the Sox would have had Napoli batting in the top of the ninth instead, after which David Ross could be switched in as catcher.  That would have been the right move offensively and in hindsight, defensively as well.

Instead, we got a play the likes of which nobody has ever seen.

Although the umpiring was right-on, last night was another night of not-very-good baseball.  The Sox have now committed five errors in the world series, and the Cardinals have contributed four more.  Of the 24 combined runs that have been scored, only 18 of them were earned.

But even bad baseball can still entertain, thrill, and break hearts. 

3 comments:

  1. Isn't the base path centered on the base, marked by the white line?

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  2. The base path is three feet to either side of the white line. (If it was just the width of the base, runners would be called automatically out for leaving the base path all the time.)

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