Manny Machado nearly pulled a quick one on the Boston Red Sox on Saturday evening. Within the third inning, the San Diego Padres third baseman tried the hidden ball trick on Jarren Duran at third base, however as a result of pitcher Wandy Peralta was standing on the rubber with out the ball, it was known as a balk. Relatively than be known as out, Duran was allowed to attain, giving the Purple Sox a 2-1 lead.
Alex Bregman had been caught in a rundown on the earlier play and Machado merely held onto the baseball. He positioned a tag on Duran as soon as he took his lead, and Duran would have been out had Peralta not been on the rubber. If Peralta had been, say, behind the mound twiddling with the rosin bag, it might have been a authorized play and a profitable hidden ball trick.
This is the play:
“I believed it was a fantastic baseball play. I am going to take some duty,” Padres supervisor Mike Shildt advised the Associated Press. “We wish to work on every part that may probably occur in spring coaching. It is my miss that we did not. You simply cannot be on the rubber when that occurs. However Manny’s IQ reveals up once more. Simply one thing we did not work on. He was on the rubber. However he had him.”
Rule 6.02(a) covers balks and sure, the foundations are as imprecise as you’d suppose given how balks usually play out on the sphere and the confusion that tends to observe. Rule 6.02(a)(9) says a balk happens when “the pitcher, with out having the ball, stands on or astride the pitcher’s plate or whereas off the plate, he feints a pitch.” Peralta standing on the rubber showing able to pitch apparently counts as “feints a pitch.”
Though the failed hidden ball trick allowed a run to cross the plate and gave the Purple Sox take the lead, Machado and the Padres got here out OK ultimately. San Diego won the game 5-4 on Ramón Laureano’s tenth-inning walk-off single. The win improved the Padres to 65-52. They’re three video games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers within the NL West.
The final profitable hidden ball trick was turned by former Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Evan Longoria towards the Dodgers on Aug. 10, 2013. Shortstop Yunel Escobar had the ball following a bases loaded sacrifice fly and rapidly flipped it to Longoria, who then tagged an unsuspecting Juan Uribe.