“Customarily, if the ball is in the dirt, you hear: ‘No catch, no catch, no catch’ and I didn’t hear any of that. It was strike three, the third out of the inning and I threw the ball back to the mound.”
Those are the words of Angels catcher Josh Paul, who thought his pitcher, Kelvim Escobar, struck out AJ Pierzynski with a hard slider to end the ninth inning. The pitch was low, but Paul appeared to catch it before it hit the dirt and home-plate umpire Doug Eddings apparently confirmed that by raising his fist to signal that Pierzynski was out. The Angels, thinking the inning was over, jogged off the field and Paul, assuming he caught the ball and getting no indication otherwise from Eddings, rolled it out toward the mound before heading toward the dugout.
Not so fast.
Pierzynski took off toward first and was ruled safe. Angels manager Mike Scioscia argued the call, but after the umps huddled to discuss the play, the call was upheld.
I’m not sure what to think about this. I guess at the heart of it all, you’ve got an umpire who signaled that the hitter was out. Inning over. Eddings also admitted that he didn’t call “no catch” and thought Paul trapped the ball. But if that’s the case, why didn’t he call “no catch”? Still, while Paul definitely has a gripe about that, in a game of this magnitude, you’d think Paul would tag the batter just to be safe. I’ve seen catchers tag hitters hundreds of times in situations like this, just as a precaution. If Paul plays it safe and tags Pierzynski, there’s no controversy and the game heads into extras. Instead, Joe Crede came up and hit a game-winning double. Series tied 1-1.
But the bottom line here is, if Eddings thought Paul trapped the ball, why did he signal that the runner was out, and why didn’t he call “no catch”? If I’m the Angels, I’m feeling cheated right about now.
