Bogaerts out at home? MLB's confusing Rule 7.13 is back

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BOSTON - Xander Bogaerts sprinted home in hopes of scoring the Red Sox' fifth run of the game in the seventh inning. Meanwhile, Blue Jays catcher Josh Thole positioned himself next to home plate, blocking it with his left leg and at one point even stepping on it while waiting for the baseball to arrive from right field.

The ball made it in time, and when Bogaerts got to the plate, there was no plate available to touch. He avoided Thole and was ruled out.

Watch the whole thing right here.

Red Sox manager John Farrell saw Thole blocking the plate and challenged the call. After six minutes and 20 seconds of who-knows-what, the ruling was confirmed that Bogaerts was out.

Huh?

Major League Baseball's Rule 7.13 was put in place last season to limit collisions at the plate. In it, it states that the catcher cannot block the plate without the ball in his hand. Thole did that. So what's the issue?

Though it wasn't explained, the assumption is that the "Torre clarification" (we'll call it that here) went into effect. In September of last season, MLB executive VP Joe Torre sent a memo to all the teams clarifying the rule. ESPN's Jayson Stark got a copy of it and reported that it "firmly instructs umpires not to call a runner safe, even if the catcher has blocked the plate without the ball, if there is no evidence that the catcher has 'hindered or impeded' the runner's path to home plate."

Regardless of the clarification, Red Sox catcher Ryan Hanigan saw the replay and is not happy with the ruling.

"I don't understand the rule if that's not going to be a [safe] call," Hanigan told CSNNE.com after the game. "That's the epitome of standing before the plate before you have the ball. It's interesting that that wasn't called in terms of our favor, because if that's not, then what is? That's my opinion. I don't know what else you can do in terms of standing in front of the plate before you have the ball and not giving the guy the opportunity to slide. Is my interpretation of the rule wrong? I'm not sure, that's what I understand the rule to be. That's what I saw. It wasn't called. So, I'm confused about the rule. I don't understand."

If it was up to Hanigan, the rule would be thrown out completely.

"I liked it better before," he said. "Take the hit. Expect the hit. Get ready to play."

When told that Bogaerts may have been ruled out due to clarification of the rule that Torre sent out, Hanigan still didn't agree with the call.

"In my opinion, in that play, that's the epitome of why the rule's there," Hanigan said. "[Bogaerts] didn't have a place to slide, [Thole] didn't have the ball, he caught the ball while he was standing there already. You tell me. If there was ever one to call safe, that was it."

The call didn't come back to bite the Red Sox, as they still won the game, 4-1. But it's certainly something that will pop up around the league in the future, and you can bet at some point it'll have a major effect on a game.

"We challenged it because Thole was standing in that path," John Farrell said. "It was pretty clear to the replay on the big screen that Bogey never had a path to the plate to slide. Unfortunately not seen that way in New York."

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