Managers differ over home plate review during Jays win over the Yankees

TORONTO – Major League Baseball’s bid to limit home run collisions has been described as a one-year experiment.

And that test hit a bit of a bump Saturday, at least in terms of interpretation, in the Blue Jays’ 4-0 win over the New York Yankees.

New York’s Francisco Cervelli doubled off R.A. Dickey to open the third inning, with Toronto leading 1-0 at the time. The Jays knuckleballer struck out the next two Yanks and outfielder Colby Rasmus gunned down Cervelli at the plate on a single by Jacoby Ellsbury.

The play survived a review, initiated by the umpiring crew to see whether Toronto catcher Josh Thole was blocking the plate. The perfectly placed throw was in front of Thole down the third-base line, meaning he had to step over the plate to get to it.

The two collided at the plate but Thole held on to the ball.

“That’s tough to overturn, I don’t care what the replay showed or anything,” said Toronto manager John Gibbons. “If he’s called safe when he’s clearly out, things like that, now you’re screwing with the game of baseball. I think they’re smart enough up in those offices reviewing those things to know ‘Hey, that’s a little different.’”

Yankees manager Joe Girardi had a different view.

“This is going to be the toughest replay of all of them because it’s such a judgment,” he said. “The way it was explained to us is if the catcher is in front of home plate towards third base, straddling the base, that is considered blocking the plate, and I believe that’s how it was.”

Girardi wants the rule refined.

“I believe this is going to be the toughest overall for them to get right all the time. To me, it’s a vague interpretation of what blocking home plate is and I think it needs to be in writing. The way it was explained to us is if you’re straddling the base in front, towards third base, that is considered to be blocking home plate.”

“I wanted to know if I could protest the game because of the rule,” Girardi added. “But no, I’m not allowed to protest.”

The new rule, 7.13, states “a runner attempting to score may not deviate from his direct pathway to the plate in order to initiate contact with the catcher (or other player covering home plate).” A runner violating the rule shall be declared out, even if the fielder drops the ball.

Along with the rule, the sides agreed to a pair of comments umpires use for interpretation.

The second comment says that “unless the catcher is in possession of the ball, the catcher cannot block the pathway of the runner as he is attempting to score.”

The runner shall be declared safe if the catcher violates that provision.

In addition, it is not a violation “if the catcher blocks the pathway of the runner in order to field a throw, and the umpire determines that the catcher could not have fielded the ball without blocking the pathway of the runner and that contact with the runner was unavoidable.”