For those of you that missed it, there was a strange play that took place during the Detroit Tigers’ 7-5 win over the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday night. Quite frankly, I’ve never seen anything like it before. Here’s what happened along with the accompanying video from MLB.com.
During the third inning with the Tigers trailing 4-2 and base runners Prince Fielder on third and Victor Martinez at second, Jhonny Peralta lined a single to right field to score Prince Fielder. It should have ended there, but Martinez rounded third and started chugging to third, opting to test the powerful arm of Jeff Francoeur.
The former Met fired a bullet to home that essentially made Martinez a dead duck. But instead of trying to barrel over Royals catcher Salvador Perez who had the plate blocked and was waiting for the slow-footed Tigers DH to make contact. Only a few feet from home plate, Martinez suddenly decides to make a hard right turn and proceeds to head to the dugout. The home plate umpire ruled Martinez out for running outside the baseline and there was never a play at the plate.
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There’s something seriously wrong here. I get that the oft-injured Victor Martinez was probably thinking of trying to avoid another stint on the DL, but still… There’s something wrong here. Seems like fans were denied a good old-fashioned baseball staple – the play at the plate.
