Red Sox catch a break by bizarre rule in extra innings, a breakdown
What Happened
In Game 4 of the 2021 ALDS at Fenway Park, tied 4-4 in the top of the 13th, Tampa Bay's Kevin Kiermaier drove a 3-2 pitch off Drew Rasmussen deep to right that hit the wall, caromed off Hunter Renfroe, and bounced over the fence. Yandy Diaz was running on the pitch and rounded third headed home, which would have been the go-ahead run. Umpires went to a New York review and ruled it a ground-rule double, sending Diaz back to third and Kiermaier to second under the deflection rule. Tampa stranded the runners, and Boston walked it off in the bottom of the inning on a Christian Vazquez home run over the Green Monster.
Why This Matters
The rule here is the accidental-deflection two-base award. When a batted ball bounces off a fielder over the fence without intent, runners get two bases from where they were at the time of contact, not a home run and not however far they would have advanced. That cost Tampa a near-certain go-ahead run since Diaz scores easily on a clean carom. Kevin Cash didn't argue because he'd been on the other side of it in 2019, when Tommy Pham booted a ball into the stands against the Blue Jays and Cash himself invoked the rule to send a runner back. The aftermath stung Tampa twice: stranded runners in the 13th, then Vazquez ended it next inning. The 100-win Rays, top seed in the AL, went home in four games.
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Key Moments
Who / What Is Involved
Players: Drew Rasmussen, Kiké Hernández. Teams: Red Sox.
Key Terms Mentioned
Full Transcript
Click timestamps to jump to that momentbaseball reared its ugly head again
yesterday tied up at four apiece in the
top of the 13th inning and before this
pavetta was absolutely dealing
fastball's top of the zone fastball's
right down the middle nasty curveball
nasty change up fastball fastball change
up curveball the curve was absolutely
disgusting this breakdown's brought to
you by manscape go to
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let's get into it kier meyer's up 13th
inning runner on that's a curveball sits
on it curveball top of the zone catcher
says calm down they wanted that strike
3-0 pours it right down the middle fouls
back to 3-1 full count
in play is it gonna go over the wall is
it gonna land on the track it hits the
wall on the fly then hits the right
fielder then goes back over the wall huh
what
does the runner score
is this guy hungry is he heartbroken
yes and we got a little side by side to
show you what happened yandy's running
on the pitch because it was 3-2 it's in
the air it hits the wall and then it
hits the fielder right there as yandy's
rounding third and he's heading home
gonna take a good two throw relay to get
him because they're deep in the outfield
i know renfro's got a good arm but even
with the bobble if that lands on the
ground there's no way yandi doesn't
score and now the rules the ones that
you know i think of a lot originally is
that if a ball gets thrown into the
dugout or out of bounds the runners get
two bases from where they are at the
time of the play but this isn't on
purpose it's on accident so what the
hell is the rule that's what everyone's
wondering you can see joey wendell go
what does that mean and everyone's like
i don't know and they're trying to tell
it hit the body it hit him everyone's
trying to figure out the umps put on the
headsets they're going to call new york
and figure it out and they're like
everyone's talking everyone's got
different ideas phillips is like dude
that could be a homer and this guy says
that's two bases and they say yeah kira
meyer's at second yandy's at third kier
meyer is like [ __ ] kidding me and
then the ump's gonna come explain it to
him and he's gonna let him know that any
bounding fair ball deflected by the
fielder into the stands
or over under a fence on fair or foul
territory in which case the batter and
all runners shall be entitled to advance
two bases and kiramar says wow wow
cash is going to come out he's going to
say isn't there a rule that if it says
that if it was intentional and the um
says no no no no no it doesn't say that
but it kind of does say that pass and
tweet it out saying that you know if a
fielder has complete possession of a
batted or thrown ball and then deflects
or kicks the ball out of play the award
is two bases from the position of the
runners at the time the ball was kicked
or deflected so if it was intentional
yandi would escort but it's not
intentional it's
it's accidental so they get rewarded for
the bad fielding and the reason cash
isn't arguing this ruling is because
cash knows this rule two seasons ago
Tommy Pham booted that ball into the
crowd and at the time grichik was on
first base and he rounds third and he
goes home but cash came out he knew the
rule he says uh you need to send him
back and they go under the hood and
they're like yeah you're right Kevin
cash you do know this rule really well
we do need to send them back and grichik
is thinking what we're all thinking he's
like well i could just throw it in the
stands then and he's going to ask the
umpire hey why don't i just throw it
into the stands and the um says if you
do something intentionally that would be
intentional and grit's like yeah but
what if i just run into it like that and
that's exactly what renfro did but not
on purpose but good what and the ump
kind of laughs and he's like oh no no no
you have to you have to field it
intentionally so blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah yarbrough gets out of
that inning and he makes a funny face so
i kept it in the video what's up jarvie
how you doing congrats on the newborn so
Kevin Cash knew all about that rule
that's why he didn't really argue and
like the rule was applied just as the
rules written but they got job there
because there's no way yandi doesn't
score and that's the go ahead run and
now you still got two in scoring
position zanino's up he goes a little
curve ball first high fastball for
strike two high fastball gets out of it
marches to the dugout start screw let's
[ __ ] go boys
and you know what
the red sox are going to go because when
you catch a break like that
you're going to win the game and you're
going to win the whole damn thing and i
love piv going down the line so now the
next inning a 3-2 pitch to renfro the
guy deflected off of
he's gonna go to score the winning run
the guard deflected off of oh my god
first pitch to christian vasquez he's
gonna pop it right over that giant wall
in left field celebrate the whole way
around what a turn of events baseball
twists its ugly knife into the rays just
such an unfortunate bounce look at that
that is a team that is happy with the
sizes and the dimensions of their field
because kier meyer's home run is out in
a lot of places and vasquez home run is
over the monster
but you play in the field you're playing
that's the beauty of baseball we got the
water bottle shower pretty good getting
everybody wet everyone's having a grand
old time we're going to get a big
bucket dump kiramire thinking what the
[ __ ] that's crazy
really oh
kenny rose getting wet look at that they
got more candy than christian just a
little too preemptive i do love the
extra water bottles and then i love this
move by arroyo he's going to take the
water bottle go upside down top of the
head boom
tees off and they are getting silly in
fenway look at those hairless bodies i
bet they use manscaped i bet they use
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