The Angels beat the Athletics 4-3 in 10 innings Thursday night on a walk-off sacrifice fly by Howie Kendrick, giving the Halos a two-game lead over Oakland in the American League West. But the A's played the game under protest thanks to a controversial obstruction call in the ninth inning.
Angels beat Athletics, Oakland protests game after obstruction call
The Angels beat the Athletics in 10 innings on Thursday night in Anaheim, but the focus was on a ninth-inning obstruction call that caused Oakland to play the game under protest.
Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports
The battle between the teams with the two best records in the majors rages on for three more games in Anaheim this weekend, but the talk of Thursday was a play one inning before Kendrick struck the winning blow.
Angels shortstop Erick Aybar led off the ninth inning of a 3-3 tie with a bouncer up the first base line, then collided with A's pitcher Dan Otero.
Obstruction was called on Otero, per MLB Rule 7.06:
If a play is being made on the obstructed runner, or if the batter/runner is obstructed before he touches first base, the ball is dead and all runners shall advance, without liability to be put out, to the bases they would have reached, in the umpire’s’ judgment, if there had been no obstruction.
At issue was whether Aybar was impeded, and if he was even in the baseline.
Melvin says he was told there was contact before Otero caught the ball. Even though there clearly wasn't.
— Jane Lee (@JaneMLB) August 29, 2014
More Aybar: "I'm running & when I pick my head up, I see the pitcher & 1B together. I want to move, & they're on top of me. I kept running."
— Alden Gonzalez (@Alden_Gonzalez) August 29, 2014
Moss says protest should be upheld: The only person Moss ran into was Otero and neither of them was in baseline. And Aybar ran out of it.
— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) August 29, 2014
Obstruction was called on first baseman Brandon Moss, even though Moss was the one with the ball who collided with Aybar.
Gerry Davis: "The ruling was obstruction on the 1B. We can’t really comment on the play further than that because of the protest involved."
— Jane Lee (@JaneMLB) August 29, 2014
The A’s got out of what was ultimately a bases-loaded jam, but had to use two more pitchers and would argue the game might have played out differently had Aybar been ruled out in the ninth.
The vast majority of protests in the majors get denied. The Giants' win of their protest of a rain-shortened Cubs victory in Chicago last week was the first protest upheld since 1986. But even with that recent success, this protest appears doomed from the outset, thanks to comments from crew chief Gerry Davis after the game.
Rule 4.19 says explicitly, “No protest shall ever be permitted on judgment decisions by the umpire.”
Rule 4.19 says no protest shall be upheld of a "judgment" call. Crew Chief Gerry Davis called this a "judgment call by Greg Gibson."
— Jeff Fletcher (@JeffFletcherOCR) August 29, 2014
The two teams play again Friday night in Anaheim, with Jon Lester of the A's facing off against Jered Weaver for the Angels.
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