The Hernandez DH snafu

The umpires did get the call right in the Boston Red Sox versus Tampa Bay Rays game. What’s not clear is why the discussion took 23 minutes.

The first thing to know about Wednesday’s night’s lineup snafu during the Rays–Red Sox game is that plate umpire Angel Hernandez (eventually) made the correct call. For that reason alone, if no other, Red Sox manager Alex Cora’s protest is doomed to fail.

The far more intriguing question is why it took two teams of (presumably) highly trained major league umpires – one on the scene and one in New York  — more than 20 minutes to ratify something that should be obvious to anybody undertaking a 30-second scan of the MLB rulebook.

Here’s the situation in brief. Starting the top of the eighth, Rays manager Kevin Cash inserted Jason Kolarek as a new pitcher. When Kolarek retired Sam Travis, Cash shifted him to first base – replacing Ji-Man Choi at that position – and summoned Chaz Roe to pitch. After Roe retired Mookie Betts, Cash returned Kolarek to the mound and brought Nate Lowe in to play first.

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The lengthy delay ensued when Cora protested that the Rays had moved Kolarek to first base while keeping designated hitter Austin Meadows in the lineup, effectively playing with 10 men.  (Meadows had occupied the third spot in the Tampa batting order, which was due to hit first in when Tampa came to the plate.)

His protest appeared to be premised on Cash’s failure to announce his altered batting order at the time Kolarek was moved to first base.

The strict rules question is multi-layered, but not really difficult. Rule 5-11, the DH rule, makes it clear that at the time Kolarek moved from pitcher to first base, Meadows was out of the game. This is rule 5-11 (a) (8):  “Once the game pitcher is switched from the mound to a position on defense, such move shall terminate the Designated Hitter role for that club for the remainder of the game.”

The pertinent question then becomes, where does Kolarek “bat?” The answer to  that  question lies in the introduction to that DH rule, 5-11 (a) (1): It reads: (1) A hitter may be designated to bat for the starting pitcher and all subsequent pitchers (emphasis added) in any game without otherwise affecting the status of the pitcher(s) in the game.”

Although over time we have come to views the DH as a “10th player,” by that rule he is merely a repeating pinch hitter for the pitcher, who in the lineup turned in by Cash prior to the start of the game was, by rule if not by practical effect, batting third. Wednesday night, Meadows was that repeating pinch hitter.

As a matter of rule, this provision nullified any opportunity Cash might otherwise have claimed — which he did not claim — to have been making a double switch at the time he moved Kolarek to first and brought in Roe to pitch. Kolarek had to bat in the third position and Roe had to bat in the only available position, Choi’s.

That’s why Cora’s complaint about Cash’s failure to designate a batting spot for Kolarek fails alongside his complaint about the DH still being in the game.

What it doesn’t answer is why it took the on-scene umpiring crew – Hernandez, Ed Hickox, Chris Segal, and Carlos Torres – consulting with peers in New York – 23 minutes to figure that out.

That delay, however, does explain why fans in Boston got so worked up about the umpires’ decision. There’s nothing fans hate as much as apparent umpire uncertainty. Hernandez didn’t help matters any in his post-game comments, which included his assertion that because Cash didn’t tell Hernandez where Kolarek would be batting, Hernandez had the discretion to assign him to the spot the umpire chose. Hernandez said he chose to put Kolarek in Meadows’ three spot.

That interpretation is a case of running into the right answer by mistake. As noted above, Hernandez had no such discretion. Kolarek had to bat third because that was the spot of the guy (Meadows) who had been battling for him, not because Hernandez made a unilateral decision.

For his part, Cora said he protested because “it was a mess at one point. I wasn’t able to keep up with Angel.”

Had Hernandez and the umpiring crew given Cora that cogent, if layered, explanation at the outset, it’s possible the Red Sox manager still would have argued the point. But it wouldn’t have taken 23 minutes to resolve because Hernandez always possessed the ultimate argument-settler: the ejection button.

At the end of the day, the umpires made the right call…even if they weren’t sure why.