A bizarre sequence had the Orioles fuming during their 6-4 loss to the Blue Jays on Sunday after what looked like an inning-ending double play turned into a catalyst for a Toronto rally.
The Orioles had a 4-1 lead in the sixth inning at Rogers Centre when Ernie Clement reached base on a fielding error by Gunnar Henderson that placed runners on the corners with one out.
That’s when Brandon Valenzuela came up to the plate and hit a ball up the middle to Henderson, who looked as though he reached out to tag the baserunner and then made the throw to first.
Baltimore thought that Clement had run out of the basepath and would be called out for doing so, but instead, second-base ump Nic Lentz called Clement safe, believing that the runner had altered his path in order to allow Henderson to make the play.
The Orioles were livid with the call and more so when it allowed Kazuma Okamoto, Andrés Giménez and Nathan Lukes to drive in runs.
Righty Shane Baz came out of the game after Okamoto and Giménez got hits, and as he did, the pitcher shouted toward the umpire, “You f–ked up,” according to Jomboy Media.
“The only reason I’m not going to talk about that play is because I will get fined,” Baz told reporters following the game, according to the Associated Press. “That’s the only reason.”
Henderson told reporters that he “felt like, not a great call.”
Speaking with a pool reporter after the game, the umpires expanded on the rationale for the call.
“The runner has the right to establish his basepath, and so Clement had established his basepath to avoid the fielder from potential interference,” Lentz said, according to the Baltimore Banner. “Even though Henderson reached out for a tag, Clement’s basepath was already established out there, going to the second base, so therefore it was not out of the baseline.”
Crew chief Hunter Wendelstedt went as far as to describe the decision to alter the basepath a “very gentlemanly thing to do.”
“He was getting out of the way to allow the fielder to make the play toward first base,” he continued. “It just so happened that, you know, then they tried to spin it to get two, but his [Clement’s] basepath was already established, and it was not trying to get out of that.”
Orioles manager Craig Albernaz said the umpires had told him it was because there wasn’t enough of a tag attempt by Henderson.
“I think when you stick your glove out to tag somebody, that’s an attempted tag,” Albernaz said following the game. “There’s no rule about how far you have to extend your arm to tag somebody.”
