Umpire got it wrong on weird double play featuring Kansas City Royals’ Salvador Perez
Cleveland manager Terry Francona was furious Friday night. He had a tinge of regret the next day.
During the Royals’ game in Cleveland on Friday, the score was 1-1 in the eighth inning, but Kansas City was in a jam.
Cleveland’s Daniel Johnson opened the bottom of the frame with a single and took second on an error by Royals center fielder Michael A. Taylor. Cesar Hernandez followed with a single that moved Johnson to third base.
That’s when things got strange.
Amed Rosario grounded to Royals shortstop Nicky Lopez. Johnson started for home, then stopped. Lopez threw to catcher Salvador Perez, who chased Johnson back toward third. Hernandez hustled and got to third base about when Johnson had retreated back.
Two runners on one base is not allowed, but it’s not an automatic out. One of the runners needed to be tagged out.
Perez tagged both runners and umpire James Hoye ruled it a double play. First, Hernandez was out for trying to take a base occupied by a teammate. Then Johnson lost contact with the base and was tagged out, too.
Confused? Well, this was a weird play:
If you slow it down, Perez tagged Johnson while he was on the base, so that’s no out because he has the right to the base. Perez then tagged Hernandez, who would’ve been out ... but by that time, Johnson was off the base.
So when Perez tagged Johnson again, he indeed was out. But Hernandez should have been safe at third.
Instead, the Royals got the twin killing that helped them get out of the inning with the score still tied.
Francona was not happy with Hoye and was ejected:
On Saturday, Francona told reporters he contacted Major League Baseball’s replay supervisor about the play.
“They said if we would’ve challenged, they would’ve put Cesar at third with one out, which we would’ve definitely taken,” Francona said, per Cleveland.com.
Cleveland never challenged, and it didn’t matter in the end because Bobby Bradley hit a home run in the ninth inning and the Royals lost 2-1.
To be fair to Hoye, things happened quickly on the play, with Perez tagging runners and Johnson’s hand being off the base, then on, then off again.
“Salvy did a very good job talking them into that,” Francona told reporters. “You really watch it and Salvy did a really good job.”
Royals manager Mike Matheny said the play has been shared with the Royals’ minor-league affiliates.
“We’ve already sent this to all of our base-running coaches in the system,” Matheny said. “Let’s go over this, let’s review. ... (It is) a very good teaching tool.”
Here’s a good look at the nuts and bolts of why Francona was so mad and how Hoye got the call wrong:
Jomboy also had a great breakdown of the play, and you can see it here.
This story was originally published July 12, 2021 at 9:24 AM.
