Last night, the St. Louis Cardinals benefited greatly as the Boston Red Sox got an obstruction call against them at the worst possible time as it was a tie game in the bottom of the ninth inning and it gave the cards the game winning run and the the series lead at two games to one.
In a bang, bang play as Red Sox catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia tagged Yadier Molina and then Saltalamacchia threw it back to third base to Will Middlebrooks where he misjudged the throw and it’s irrelevant as if he tried to trip intentially Allen Craig who was rounding third base heading home or not.
Obstruction has been defined by major league baseball as rule 7.06,[3] If a play is being made on the obstructed runner, or if the batter-runner is obstructed before he touches first base, the ball is dead and all runners shall advance, without liability to be put out, to the bases they would have reached, in the umpire’s judgment, if there had been no obstruction. The obstructed runner shall be awarded at least one base beyond the base he had last legally touched before the obstruction. Any preceding runners, forced to advance by the award of bases as the penalty for obstruction, shall advance without liability to be put out.
While it might not be ideal the way for a game to end, however rules are rules and they are applicable to any game situation regardless if it results in a win or not.
Related articles
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
