Jason Bourgeois forgot how the infield fly rule works and it was costly for Reds
The Cincinnati Reds had a bases loaded with one out in the fifth inning Wednesday night in their game with the Kansas City Royals. The Reds were trailing by one run and had Jay Bruce at the plate. This, folks, is what’s known as an opportunity.
What happened next, however, wasn’t opportune.
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Jason Bourgeois, the 33-year-old journeyman outfielder, was on third base for the Reds. When Bruce hit a weak pop-up to the right side of the infield, things went haywire. The umps called the infield fly rule, which is a fairly well-known rule despite it not being called very frequently. It’s used when there are two or more runners on base in a force situation and less than two outs.
The point of the infield fly rule is to prevent fielders from letting the ball drop and turning an easy double play since the baserunners wouldn’t be moving on a fly ball. When an infield fly rule is called, the batter is immediately out and the baserunners aren’t forced to the next base.
That’s not how it played out Wednesday night for the Royals. An infield fly was called, Bruce was out, but Bourgeois took off for home. He was easily thrown out and looked confused and/or disgruntled as he walked back to third base. All bad, man. All bad.
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It was costly too, since neither team scored again and the Royals won 4-3. There’s no guarantee the next man up, Todd Frazier, would have delivered a base hit, but the Reds certainly would have preferred the opportunity over an odd inning-ending double play started by the infield fly rule. The Reds were swept by K.C. at home, causing Wikipedia vandals to anoint the Royals the new “owners” of the Reds. Insert sad trombone here.
After the game, Reds manager Bryan Price didn’t throw Bourgeois under the bus. He, instead, said that instinct took over and assured us all that Bourgeois does know the rules. From John Fay at the Cincinnati Enquirer:
“At that point in time, the ball was just getting ready to hit. I think (Bourgeois) felt in that situation obliged to run. There’s no fault on the umpires. They have to wait until that ball has a position player underneath until they rule infield fly. I think that was his reaction. It was an instinctive deal.”
“It was a tough day. Tough day,” Reds manager Bryan Price said. “He knows the rule. It was just a reaction.”
The Reds’ clubhouse was closed, so we didn’t get to hear Bourgeois’ explanation. The look on his face after the play, however, said enough.
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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz
