Over 37,000 present at Fenway Park — plus millions watching through a TV, laptop, phone or tablet screen — all saw the same trajectory of the ball that Kevin Kiermaier laced into right field in the top of the 13th inning on Sunday night.
And given how many twists and turns are present in the tome that is the MLB Rulebook — coupled with the pinball-like path that said smoked slider took — it was fair to assume that each of those 37,000 all had a different interpretation of what transpired when that ball clanged off the right-field wall, ricocheted off of Hunter Renfroe and then bounced into Boston’s bullpen.
The overwhelming consensus at first? Outright confusion.
Kevin Kiermaier ends up hitting a ground rule double. What a break for the Red Sox if this holds... pic.twitter.com/JxLaaBrAZY
— Justin Groc (@justgroc) October 11, 2021
At first glance, it appeared as though the Rays had finally landed a punch against a previously impermeable Nick Pivetta — with Kiermaier driving in Yandy Diaz from first and giving the visitors a 5-4 lead in a pivotal Game 3 of the ALDS.
But based on the fracas that played out in right between the aforementioned wall, Renfroe and a careening ball of rubber-covered cork — it was clear that clearer heads needed to assess the situation once the dust settled.
“I was speechless because I don’t know if you guys have seen that before,” Kikè Hernandez said. “I’ve never seen that before in my life. I wasn’t sure what was going to get called. I wasn’t sure if the runners had to return. I wasn’t sure if it was going to be like an errant throw where the runner would get two bags. Like I had no idea.”
But for the umpiring crew on hand, ruling on such a bizarre sequence was clear as day — even in a baseball cathedral with as many quirks as Fenway.
“It's just flat out in the rule book, it's a ground-rule double,” crew chief Sam Holbrook said.
After a brief conference — and subsequent video review — Diaz was halted at third base due to the ground-rule double ruling, keeping the postseason contest knotted at four runs apiece.
Granted new life, Pivetta made the most of it, punching out Mike Zunino to strand Diaz and Kiermaier at third and second, respectively. Just a few minutes later, the Sox delivered the knockout punch — with Christian Vazquez drilling a two-run shot into the Monster Seats to cap off a dramatic 6-4 win.
Based on the reaction from Tampa Bay’s social media coordinator, Rays fans online and even the players on the field — it’d be easy to craft some sort of controversy out of the ruling that the umpires made in the top of the 13th that clearly benefited the home club.
But for Holbrook, there was no interpretation or any other variance needed on what they ruled as a cut-and-dry sequence.
“This is our umpire manual, and what I'd like to do it just quote from the manual,” Holbrook said. “It's item 20 in the manual, which is, balls deflected out of play, which is in reference to official baseball Rule 5.06(b)(4)(H). It says, if a fair ball not in flight is deflected by a fielder and goes out of play, the award is two bases from the time of the pitch.
"So in this play right here, the ball was no longer in flight because it hit the front part of the wall. So you cannot catch the ball off the wall. The wall is basically an extension of the playing field, the front part of the wall is. So once that ball hit the wall, it was no longer in flight. Now the ball bounces off the wall and is deflected out of play off of a fielder, that's just a ground-rule double.”
For Kiermaier, the disappointment was apparent — an expected reaction, although a bit ironic for an outfielder that’s used to seeing clobbering baseballs clang off the catwalks of Tropicana Field season after season.
"I can't believe that happened or we don't get the chance to score right there," Kiermaier said. "For one, I crushed that ball. I was hoping to leave the yard. I got a lot of snap and crackle but no pop. First and foremost, for that to happen right there, it just doesn't make sense to me. … It's a heartbreaker.”
Rays manager Kevin Cash was much more measured in his criticism. After all, he argued for a similar play back in 2019 that yielded the same result — in which a runner on first was halted at third following confirmation of a ground-rule double.
In 2019 Kevin Cash came out to argue about a ball deflected into the stands that the runner on first should be stopped at 3rd base. He was correct and the umps got it right, just like tonight. pic.twitter.com/8ltZ0DXgu4
— Red Sox Stats (@redsoxstats) October 11, 2021
“Oh, I definitely wish it was different,” Cash said. “Certainly in the moment -- you can appreciate somewhat of a blanket rule, but we put a lot on these umpires, and now we've introduced video to umpires. I think it would be a very easy call if somebody stepped in and said it was stating the obvious that he was going to score. Saying that, it's been a rule for a long time, and we're going to play within the rules that are presented to us this season.”
Let’s be clear. No one, absolutely no one, wants to see the results of a playoff game dictated by a controversial ruling, especially one sanctioned at the discretion of the officials out on the field/diamond/ice.
Thankfully, this isn’t one of those sequences in which the Rays have a lot of ammo when it comes to getting worked over by the umpires or the rule book.
Was it a tough bounce — figuratively and literally — for Tampa? Certainly.
But considering that Vazquez’s two-run swat in the bottom of the 13th would have secured a victory for the Sox anyway, any cries of a fix job from Tampa’s perspective should fall on deaf ears.
"Luckily, it went our way," Hernandez said. "You call it home-field advantage if you want — call it whatever you want, but we won."