As the Toronto Blue Jays strung together a go-ahead five-run rally on Sunday against the Baltimore Orioles, they were on the right side of a controversial call that extended the sixth inning.
With one out and runners on the corners, Blue Jays catcher Brandon Valenzuela hit a soft ground ball to Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson.
As Henderson fielded the ball, Ernie Clement — Toronto’s runner at first — altered his route towards second, veering out of reach of the Orioles shortstop. Henderson took a step towards Clement and moved his glove towards the Blue Jay, but didn’t make a full attempt to make a tag, instead choosing to throw to first for the out on Valenzuela.
Once the play had come to an end and umpires ruled Clement safe at second, Henderson, first baseman Pete Alonso and pitcher Shane Baz all began to plead Baltimore’s case for an out-of-the-baseline ruling, and manager Craig Albernaz sprinted out of the dugout to argue the call.
But second-base umpire Nic Lentz stood with his ruling as a run scored and the inning continued.
From there, Toronto went on to score three more runs and take the lead on its way to a 6-4 win.
Speaking to a pool reporter after the game, Lentz provided some clarity on the call.
“The runner has a right to establish his basepath. And so, Clement had established his basepath to avoid the fielder from potential interference,” Lentz said, per MLB.com’s Jake Rill. “And even though that Henderson reached out for a tag, Clement’s basepath was already established out there going to 2nd base. So therefore, it was not out of the baseline.”
“Any runner is out when he runs more than three feet away from his base path to avoid being tagged unless his action is to avoid interference with a fielder fielding a batted ball. A runner’s base path is established when the tag attempt occurs and is a straight line from the runner to the base he is attempting to reach safely.”
So, because Clement established his path as Henderson first fielded the ball, he did not vacate the baseline to avoid being tagged.
“The runner gets to create their own lane. I guess I created it early enough to where I wasn’t out of the base path,” Clement explained. “It’s really umpire discretion, I think you’ve got to try not to get tagged in that situation and stay out of the double play.”
Home-plate umpire and crew chief Hunter Wendelstedt added post-game, per the Baltimore Banner‘s Andy Kotska: “(Clement) was vacating an area to let the fielder field it, and then the fielder just tried to, you know, was hoping and praying, throwing up the Hail Mary to try and get two.”
Of course, the ruling didn’t sit so well with the Orioles, who fell to 31-35 in the loss.
“I’m not going to go chase him into right field when I’m trying to turn a double play there,” Henderson said. “He’s only allotted so many feet to be considered in the baseline, and if you make a loop and a slide to where you can’t even reach second base in the next two steps, I don’t really understand that.”
Baz, who was pulled in the middle of that sixth inning and shouted at Lentz on his way off the field, refused to comment on the play, “Because (he) will get fined.”