Buck was right: Umpires say they missed call in O’s-Yanks

NEW YORK (AP) - Turns out, Orioles manager Buck Showalter had it right.

Crew chief Jerry Meals said umpires missed a call during a disputed rundown at third base during a game between Baltimore and the New York Yankees on Friday night.

“We were incorrect,” Meals said.

The play happened in the sixth inning with the Orioles leading 3-2 - they went on to win 7-3 in 14 innings behind Pedro Alvarez’s grand slam.

With runners at the corners, New York’s Neil Walker hit a dribbler to pitcher Richard Bleier, who caught Giancarlo Stanton in a rundown between third and home. Gary Sanchez advanced from first to third while Stanton was hung up, and catcher Caleb Joseph eventually chased Stanton back toward third as well.

That’s when it got weird. Stanton ran through the base and into foul territory, giving himself up. Joseph first tagged Sanchez, then chased down Stanton, thinking he’d turned a double play. By the book, if both Sanchez and Stanton had remained on third base, Sanchez would have been called out upon Joseph’s tag.

“We tagged the right guys,” Showalter said. “We worked on that in the spring, about who was out and who wasn’t out and what you want to try to get them to do. I thought our guys had done it perfect.”

Third base umpire Ron Kulpa only called out Stanton, though, and after the umpires conferred, the call stood. The ruling on the field was because Stanton gave himself up, there never technically were two runners on third base.

Showalter gave it a long argument, but to no avail.

Turns out, he had a point.

Meals said after the game that when Stanton ran past third base, Sanchez should have been ruled to have passed the lead runner - an automatic out for Sanchez.

“Then Stanton had the right to come back and touch third before being tagged or be called out for abandoning his effort,” Meals said.

Ronald Torreyes followed with an inning-ending groundout, so the incorrect call didn’t affect the outcome.

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