Fans at Sunday’s game against the Pirates were treated to two 7th-inning stretches. Unfortunately, it was not because they wanted to hear Take Me Out To The Ballgame twice like Neil Diamond playing an encore of Sweet Caroline at his concerts.

When the 7th inning was done for the second time, fans were booing as the Mets jogged back to the dugout once again.

In the top of the 7th inning, the Pirates had a runner on first with one out. Josh Edgin induced a tailor-made 6-4-3 double play ball which the Mets swiftly turned and jogged back to the dugout. Both runners were out by a mile and that was that.

The Mets listened to God Bless America in the dugout, then started to get ready to bat in the bottom of the seventh when all of a sudden they were asked to return to the playing field.

The call at second base had been overturned. It certainly wasn’t because the runner beat the throw – Josh Harrison had reached first base on a hit-by-pitch on his calf and was in no hurry to get to second base. He was not even in the frame when the play was shown on SNY. So, why was the runner ruled safe?

In fact, the replay showed that Neil Walker‘s foot was about half an inch above the base when he caught the throw from Asdrubal Cabrera. Technically, he never touched second base with the ball in his glove, something that is required with the current rules. After the play was over, manager Clint Hurdle asked the umpires to check the replay. However, they waited until after God Bless America had concluded to go to the replay so as not to be disrespectful.

The Mets had no idea this was going on. During Take Me Out to the Ballgame, the umpire took off the headset, pointed to second base, and signaled “safe.” The Mets jogged back onto the field, each one with a look on their face of either confusion or disbelief.

“The way they explained it to me was that Clint wanted to challenge it and obviously Jimmy tried to get everything stopped, but they went right into ‘God Bless America.’ He didn’t want to interrupt that, so he just let it play,” Collins said after the game. “Being a former middle infielder I think it’s kind of silly, but that’s the rule.”

Josh Edgin returned to the mound after he thought he had pitched a 1-2-3 inning. With a runner at second base and two outs, third baseman David Freese lined a single to right field to score a run and give the Pirates a 6-1 lead at the time – a run that would not have scored if A) the neighborhood play was not changed to make it so the fielder had to touch the bag with the ball on double plays or B) the Pirates hadn’t abused the instant replay rule.

Obviously the challenge benefitted the Pirates and they did not cheat at all, I am certainly not arguing that. Hurdle was doing everything he could to help his team win. What I am arguing, however, is that this challenge was not made in the spirit of the rules. Neil Walker sums it up perfectly with what he told reporters after the game:

“Obviously the instant replay said that I was clearly off the base,” Walker said. “But a guy peels off and it’s a tailor-made double play- I guess that’s what replay’s for, to get the play right- but that’s really stretching it. I looked at it, and it’s arbitrary at best… Fortunately, it wasn’t in a situation that really changed the game. Some instant replay situations need to be looked at in individual circumstances I guess. Tailor made double plays and the guy peels off and you’re out of the inning, to me that’s common sense but in today’s day and age we’re trying to get every situation perfectly correct no matter what.”

The rules were not put in place to find loopholes and be taken advantage of. The rules were put in place to make sure the game of baseball is played the right way. The rules were technically followed here, and because of that a major flaw was uncovered. An incident like this should never occur in Major League Baseball.