CLEVELAND -- If it wasn’t for Bobby Bradley’s walk-off homer on Friday night, the confusion at third base in the bottom of the eighth could’ve put the Indians right back in the loss column.
Luckily for Cleveland, the play that resulted in skipper Terry Francona getting ejected for the first time this season had no impact on the game’s outcome. However, it still left both teams and fan bases puzzled. Francona said Saturday that he and bench coach DeMarlo Hale chatted with MLB’s vice president of replay operations Justin Klemm to get a better understanding of what happened.
Let’s break it down:
Daniel Johnson was on third base and Cesar Hernandez was on first. Amed Rosario hit a slow ground ball to shortstop Nicky Lopez, and Johnson made the mistake of breaking toward home plate before getting caught in a rundown. When he realized he had nowhere to go, he waved for Hernandez to keep rounding second to get to third. At the same time, they both dove into third base with Johnson beating him to the bag by a second.
Because Johnson was in a rundown, Royals backstop Salvador Perez was at third base as both runners got to the bag. Perez put the tag down on Johnson and then Hernandez. Johnson came off the bag and Perez tagged him once again, resulting in the umpire calling both runners out.
According to Francona, the rule would be that if both runners get to the bag, the runner who was there first (Johnson) would be safe and the other would be subject to be called out, meaning if Hernandez was tagged first, even if he was on the base (since Johnson was on it too), he would’ve been out. But that’s not how the Indians saw it play out.
Cleveland third-base coach Mike Sarbaugh was under the impression that Johnson was tagged out first, which would mean Hernandez would be able to safely take third base. So, Francona came out of the dugout and argued that point, which eventually led to his ejection. However, the play was reviewable even though he and the rest of the coaching staff didn’t think to challenge it in the moment.
“I got up to about halfway up the hallway and I was like, 'I wonder if we could replay something,'” Francona said. “And DeMarlo kind of said the same thing and [replay coordinator Mike Barnett] said the same thing. … We were trying to find out after the argument if you lose the right [to challenge] because it’s been more than 20 seconds. But we didn’t get an answer on that one yet.”
The one answer they did get is that if they would’ve challenged the call, the result would’ve been Hernandez getting awarded third base and only Johnson getting called out, according to Francona, who received the information from Klemm.
Now, the Indians know how to handle the situation, should the bizarre play ever pop up again. In the meantime, they can find humor in the moment now that it’s over and didn’t affect the outcome of the game.
“I was kind of laughing. I wasn’t really laughing, but when I got back up in my office, [Sarbaugh] was still yelling,” Francona said. “I asked him after the game. He goes, ‘Yeah, I was close to getting thrown out. But I knew DeMarlo didn’t have his top on. That would’ve really been bad.’”
Bieber progressing
Shane Bieber (right shoulder strain) finally started to do some form of throwing, working with weighted balls for the first time on Friday. He’s still building up the muscles in his shoulder to get himself to the point of being able to throw a baseball again, but the team knows it could take some time.
“The hard part right now with it is, we were kind of talking about it today, is the amount of work they do and the amount of stuff they do with their shoulder is obviously intense and a lot,” Francona said. “Then when you take some time off, some of the muscles can get a little cranky. I think that’s probably the best word. So, now you’re starting up again and it’s like OK what’s cranky and what’s -- so trying to determine that.
“Because he felt a little bit of the crankiness. But then today he came in and he felt like he was gonna have a better day, which is good. There’s gonna be some of that. It’s not perfect. Like you can get all the MRIs you want. There’s a lot going on up there and just keeping tabs on it.”