Here's the one time a player will cheer for his own error

May 11th, 2022

ANAHEIM -- It’s not every day that the home crowd cheers the official scorer for charging an error on one of the home players. But it’s also not every day that a rookie pitcher has a no-hit bid going in the seventh inning.

With rookie left-hander Reid Detmers seven outs away from history, Rays right fielder Brett Phillips hit a grounder to first baseman , who couldn’t handle the play, allowing Phillips to reach first and give the Rays just their second baserunner of the night after Taylor Walls drew a leadoff walk in the sixth. But after a bit of a wait, it was announced that Walsh was charged with an error, leading the crowd of 39,213 at Angel Stadium to cheer, with Walsh clapping along to the decision.

It turned out to be a pivotal decision, as Detmers completed the no-hitter in a 12-0 win. But everyone involved with the play insisted it was the right call.

"There was no question, it was an error,” Walsh said. “I heard the fans and I was like ‘Yeah, I agree. Let's go.’"

Even Phillips admitted after the game he also thought the error ruling was correct, as he looked back at video and the Statcast data, which said it left his bat at 92.4 mph.

"I looked at it -- I think I hit it like 92 mph," Phillips said. "Not hard enough, not far enough in the hole. There's no question that's an error. So that's a clean no-hitter.”

Angels manager Joe Maddon enjoyed the fans cheering at the call but also didn’t understand what took so long to have it announced.

"What took so long? Did he have to look at a video?” Maddon said. “That's an error. Jared is beautiful. Nobody felt worse than him in that moment. He had already made several really good plays. But that was an error from the moment it was hit."