Yankees skipper Joe Girardi questions rule he says leads to assault
It wasn’t a long wait for the first protested game of the 2016 Major League Baseball season, and if New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi has his way, we might already have an agenda item for the rules committee in the offseason.
Girardi decided to protest Tuesday’s season opener at Yankee Stadium between New York and the Houston Astros after a controversial play in the eighth inning of the Astros’ 5-3 win.
With Jose Altuve on second base, Carlos Correa hit slow-roller down the first-base line and sprinted toward the bag running inside the line on the grass. Yankees reliever Dellin Betances grabbed the ball and threw wildly over first base and into right field, allowing Altuve to score the go-ahead run
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Girardi argued that Correa shouldn’t be allowed to run on the grass because doing so doesn’t allow the fielder a clean throw to first base and forces the pitcher to hit the runner in the back with the throw, which could lead to a serious injury. If Betances would have hit Correa with the throw, Correa would have been out.
Umpires didn’t disagree with what Girardi was saying but they also couldn’t call Correa out because he is allowed to run on the grass under the current rules. Things got pretty heated between Girardi and crew chief Dana DeMuth.
“I don’t think that’s what baseball wants,” Girardi told reporters after the game. “So to me, it’s something that probably needs to be looked at…. What’s Dellin’s option there? Hit him in the back? Is that really want we want?
“They would have called him out if he hit him. That doesn’t make any sense to me, because now you’re asking one of our players to assault theirs.”
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DeMuth answered questions about the call and the rules governing the play after the game and suggested the only solution under current rules for the fielder is to hit the runner with the ball, exactly what Girardi wants to avoid.It seems like everyone did what they were supposed to do here except for Betances, who apparently should have hit Correa with his throw to first.
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Kyle Ringo is a contributing writer to Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KyleRingo
