Scioscia feels that this calls for protest
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Major League Baseball’s rulebook splayed out on his desk in Kauffman Stadium’s visitors clubhouse, Mike Scioscia spoke with vehemence late Wednesday night. He believed an umpiring misinterpretation robbed the Angels of their rightful victory.
With the Angels up two runs on Kansas City in the seventh inning, and Royals on first and second, Matt Shoemaker fielded Raul Mondesi Jr.s’ bunt toward the mound, turned and threw the baseball into right field. Kole Calhoun slipped while picking it up at the wall, both Royals runners scored, and Mondesi took third base.
Scioscia emerged immediately from the visiting dugout. The Angels manager argued to home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi that Mondesi had run inside the firstbase line, impeding Shoemaker’s throw and invalidating everything else that happened afterward.
The men argued, mostly calmly, for seven minutes. And then the ruling remained, the umpiring crew stating that the judgment call could not be reviewed. The Angels filed a protest, and then suffered one of their more unusual defeats, 7-5, of the 2016 campaign.
Scioscia said he was “100%” confident he was correct on the matter, his argument hinging on what Cuzzi told him on the field.
“It’s very clear,” Scioscia said. “Phil Cuzzi had Mondesi running inside the line in jeopardy the whole way, and stated that it was OK because he was stepping back towards the bag, which is wrong. … There’s no judgment involved. He admitted that [Mondesi] was outside the line. … That’s the basis of the protest.”
Cuzzi declined to comment after the game. Scioscia said he expected the protest to be granted.
To twist the sword, Mondesi, who scored in the seventh, reached on another ground ball to the left side in the eighth, and the Angels’ pitcher, Jose Alvarez, again threw the ball away, allowing an additional run to score.
The Angels rallied against an unusually shaky Wade Davis for two hits and three walks to bring the goahead run to bat in the ninth before Jett Bandy struck out for the final out.
Shoemaker started the game with the dominating stuff he has showcased for two months now, and Royals left-hander Danny Duffy was similarly sharp. Gregorio Petit notched the first hit for either team when he shot a single to left in the third inning.
In the fifth, Bandy and Petit worked walks, and Johnny Giavotella knocked a come-backing single. Looking at the bases loaded without an out, Yunel Escobar grounded into a double play, his 19th of 2016, the most in the major leagues. But it scored the game’s first run.
With Shoemaker riding a perfect game in the bottom of the fifth, Salvador Perez blasted a fastball nearly to the right field wall. Off at the sound, Calhoun dived, only to see the baseball bounce out of his glove for a double.
Perez would score on a subsequent double. The Angels added a run in the sixth inning when Mike Trout sneaked a ball under Paulo Orlando’s glove in right field and scampered home on Jefry Marte’s second double, and another run in the top half of the seventh, before the fracas of the bottom half.
“Six strong innings, and then in the seventh, just a bunch of crap,” Shoemaker said. “And we lose the game.”
The Angels and Royals have a mutual off day Aug. 8. Ostensibly, the game’s final three innings could be played then.