BALTIMORE -- Giants second baseman Luis Arraez departed Saturday night’s game in the middle of the fifth inning, one frame after a bizarre sequence when Orioles baserunner Dylan Beavers appeared to incidentally kick Arraez’s throwing hand as he prepared to field a grounder.
Second-base umpire Erich Bacchus appeared to call runner’s interference on Beavers, who was trying to reach second on Leody Taveras’ grounder, then went airborne to try and avoid contact with the ball.
Arraez fielded and threw to first in time to retire Taveras. But instead, Taveras remained on first and Beavers returned to the dugout.
The MLB right of way guidelines say the batter is called out if any member of the batting team interferes with a fielder’s ability to field a batted ball.
Arraez immediately clutched at his hand after throwing to first and received medical attention, but remained in the game for the moment, even making a nice back-handed stop of Coby Mayo’s RBI forceout two batters later.
Mayo’s productive out put the Orioles in front. He scored on Jeremiah Jackson’s RBI double to make it 4-2.
Arraez was replaced before the bottom half of the fifth by Christian Koss.