KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Starling Marte’s second-inning fly ball hit high off the left-field wall, and somehow got over it. The Pirates left fielder trotted around the bases, celebrating his 14th home run of the season, then waited in the dugout as the umpires congregated for an official review, trying to find a way to explain what exactly had happened.
Here’s what everybody saw: Marte’s fly ball struck the wall 3/4 of the way up, right at the top of a row of padding. The ball reversed course, bounced high in the air, and landed in the Kansas City Royals bullpen beyond the fence.
Upon review, however, Marte’s possible home run was overturned and ruled a ground-rule double. The play took a run away from the Pirates, as they stranded Marte at third.
MLB released a brief statement attempting to explain its ruling. The replay official “definitely determined” that the ball struck below the top of th wall and bounced over. Had it struck the top of the wall and bounced over, it would have been a home run.
"I've never seen that,“ starter Gerrit Cole said later. ”That's absurd. Just making up ground rules as we go."
Well, it’s not actually in ground rules, he was told.
"Yeah, we know."
Manager Clint Hurdle took a more measured approach, but he was obviously pretty miffed by the play a few hours later.
"I'm really looking forward to hearing the explanation from New York,“ he said. ”It's a situation I'm still concerned to hear [explained]. I couldn't find it in a rule book. It's not in the uninversal rules inide the dugout. You can't protest a replay. There was a lot of confusion.
"I think everybody would like to have a better clarification."
Manager Clint Hurdle
LF Starling Marte
First Published: March 24, 2016, 5:01 p.m.
