Uncommon play in Los Angeles last night.
In the sixth inning, with a runner on first and one out, Andre Ethier hit a line drive to Angels shortstop Erick Aybar. Aybar dropped the ball, but had the presence of mind to pick it up, step on second base and throw it to first for the double play. Or so he wanted everyone to believe.
Second-base umpire Sam Holbrook ruled that Aybar intentionally dropped the ball in order to start the double play. He called Ethier out but baserunner Juan Rivera back to first base. It got a little dicey after that as C.J. Wilson walked the next two batters, but then James Loney flied out to end the inning.
This, by the way, is not the infield fly rule. That doesn’t apply simply when a runner is at first, there has to be runners at first and second or the bases have to be loaded. Rather, this is Rule 6.05 which defines when a batter is out. Specifically, subsection (l) says a batter is out when...
Good call by Holbrook. I can’t remember this happening very often, and I’d be skeptical if it does, in fact, come up very often. Given all the flak we give umpires these days, it’s probably worth remembering from time to time that they have a LOT of things to think about in a game.
