Royals’ Matt Quatraro was furious a balk wasn’t called on this play. Take a look
It’s not quite up there with the “What’s a Catch” debate among NFL fans, but identifying when a pitcher balks can be difficult to spot when watching a baseball game.
But that’s what Major League Baseball umpires are paid to do, and Royals manager Matt Quatraro was certain they dropped the ball in Sunday’s 6-5 loss to the White Sox at Kauffman Stadium.
Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. was on first base in the fourth inning when he took off for second base. Seemingly, everyone in the Royals dugout began yelling “balk” while Witt was running.
“I think the like definition of a balk, if you, whatever, hinder a base runner,” Witt said. “And I thought that he was going to the plate, and so I thought it was a balk.”
White Sox pitcher Jordan Hicks seemed unfazed at the noise from the Royals dugout. He simply stepped off the rubber and threw to second, where Witt was tagged out. Quatraro immediately stepped out of the dugout seeking an explanation.
The umpires told Quatraro what they saw and that incensed the Royals manager. He let the umps have an earful but was not ejected from the game.
“Nobody saw it,” Quatraro said. “They said they would have called it if they had.”
Witt said: “They said they didn’t see anything. They said they weren’t kind of watching.”
Were Witt and Quatraro right? Video of the play circulated on X/Twitter postgame.
Ironically, a balk was called in the seventh inning when Witt was on first base. But the non-balk ended the fourth inning after the Royals had scored twice.
