There may be an previous saying from Tim Kurkjian that baseball is the best recreation there may be, as a result of “each night time you go to the ballpark, you would possibly see one thing you’ve by no means seen earlier than.”
For the hundreds of followers who piled into Residents Financial institution Park on Monday night time to see the Philadelphia Phillies tackle the Boston Purple Sox, that was definitely the case.
With the sport knotted at 2-2 after 9 innings, the sport went to the tenth. The Phillies held the Purple Sox scoreless within the prime of the tenth, and got here to bat within the backside of the body hoping to ship the hometown followers pleased.
They did, in most inconceivable style.
The inning started with Brandon Marsh as the automated, “ghost runner” on second base. Boston reliever Jordan Hicks walked Otto Kemp, after which his first pitch to Max Kepler was a slider within the grime that received by catcher Carlos Narvaez, permitting each Marsh and Kemp to advance.
Boston then selected to deliberately stroll Kepler to load the bases for Edmundo Sosa, who had pinch-hit for Bryson Stott earlier within the recreation.
That’s when this occurred:
Sosa regarded to swing at a pitch off the plate, however instantly gestured to dwelling plate umpire Quinn Wolcott, after which Narvaez. As you possibly can see from the replays, Sosa’s bat caught Narvaez’s catcher’s mitt.
The play was reviewed, and the ruling got here in: Catcher’s interference. That despatched Sosa to first and superior the runners, forcing Marsh dwelling with the successful run.
As famous by MLB.com, it was the primary walk-off catcher’s interference play since August 1, 1971, when the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Cincinnati Reds. In that recreation, Dodgers outfielder Willie Crawford drew an interference name towards Johnny Bench to finish the sport.
However take into account what else went into the play between the Phillies and the Purple Sox. Not solely did you’ve gotten the automated, “ghost” runner rating the successful run — a rule that was instituted for the 2020 season — however the play was additionally decided through video evaluation, which went into impact for the 2014 season.
So you’ve gotten a walk-off catcher’s interference play that scored the automated runner in additional innings, confirmed by video evaluation.
Like Kurkjian wrote years in the past, we’ve by no means seen that earlier than.
