Those Royals find a unique way to lose

[fanforever]

Here's the situation:

Last of the seventh inning, Mariners have runners at second and third, two outs. Game is tied Mariners 1 Royals 1.

Willie Bloomquist was at the plate. On an 3-2 pitch, he swings and tips the ball. The Royals catcher John Buck held on to the ball. Inning over.

...but was it?

The homeplate umpire kept the Royals on the field. There was a conference. Finally, they ruled that the at bat would continue. Bloomquist doubled on the next pitch to provide the winning runs.

Apparently Buck trapped the ball against his armpit and the rule says that a foul tip must be caught cleanly in the glove or bare hand to be an out. I had never heard of that before.

http://www.kansascity.com/159/story/88682.html

Posted on Mon, Apr. 30, 2007
Royals can’t catch a break, collapse after call
Catcher John Buck’s controversial play gives the Mariners new life while KC falls apart.
By BOB DUTTON
The Kansas City Star
SEATTLE | These things don’t only happen to the Royals. Really. They only happen more often to the Royals.

Or seem to.

Was there any doubt Sunday as to what was coming next after catcher John Buck failed to make a clean catch in the seventh on what would have been an inning-ending strikeout that would have stranded runners at second and third in a tie game?

Not if you’ve followed the Royals for any length of time.

Utility infielder Willie Bloomquist, an .083 hitter, for pity’s sake, cashed the second chance by looping Brian Bannister’s next offering into center for a two-run double. The ball kissed down just in front of a diving David DeJesus.

Ichiro Suzuki followed with an RBI single and, whammo, the Royals are heading home after concluding their trip with a 5-1 loss to the Seattle Mariners.

“I can recall a couple of different times,” Buck said, “when something like that happened, something that could have gone either way, and it hasn’t gone our way. But you can’t dwell on it because it’s not going to change.

“You’ve just got to battle through it and make one of these times go our way.”

First point: Was it a catch?

Yes, if the ball tipped Buck’s glove before hitting his chest protector. Buck said it did. At least one replay angle suggested otherwise, but it was hard to tell.

And that’s the complaint offered by Royals manager Buddy Bell: It’s a bad rule.

“That play happens too fast for the home-plate umpire to call,” he said. “It happens too fast for the second-base umpire to call. If (a batter) fouls the ball off and it doesn’t hit the ground, then it should be a strikeout.

“It’s that simple. I don’t understand why it has to be so complicated.”

Second point: Bannister could have retired Bloomquist on the next pitch and sent the game into the eighth inning at 1-1. Instead, the Royals collapsed; the Mariners scored three times. Only remaining question: That plane leaves when?

“The winning teams,” Mike Sweeney said, “when they don’t get a call, they find a way to get the job done so the mistake is not exploited. Right now, we’re not that team. We need to keep working until we are.”

The Royals, 8-17, didn’t get a hit until the sixth against Mariners starter Cha Seung Baek. But Bannister was nearly as good. He allowed just one unearned run in the first six innings, and the Royals pulled even in their seventh.

Bannister, 0-1, had also retired 14 in a row before starting the Seattle seventh by issuing a four-pitch walk to 6-foot-8 Richie Sexson.

That started the uh-oh meter ticking.

“I know he’s been struggling,” Bannister said. “I could see it in his eyes that he was up there, trying to take a good hack. I think I was trying to be too fine. I was trying to make a better pitch down, and I got behind on him.”

Jose Guillen reached on a force-out and went to third on Yuniesky Betancourt’s hustle double to left. Reggie Sanders had a chance to get Betancourt at second, but his throw pulled Mark Grudzielanek away from the base.

Ticking louder.

Bannister retired Jamie Burke on a pop to first and worked the count to 3-2 on Bloomquist, who had only one hit this season in 12 previous at-bats. Bloomquist tipped the next offering; the ball wedged in Buck’s arm against his chest protector.

“I felt it,” Buck said. “I felt something hit my glove. But everything happened so fast. That’s why you can’t blame the umpire for not seeing it. It’s an awkward play anyway, and it happened so quickly.”

Buck slipped the ball into his glove and headed off the field. So did the rest of the Royals. Inning over.

Not so fast. Umpire Chris Guccione signaled no catch.

“He said he didn’t see it (hit the glove),” Buck said. “I asked if he would ask the other umpires, who had a better vantage point, and they said they didn’t see it either.”

The ticking surged to a danger-Will-Robinson hum.

Bloomquist’s two-run double finished Bannister. Jimmy Gobble then surrendered an RBI single to Suzuki that extended the lead to 4-1. The Mariners tacked on another run in the eighth after DeJesus dropped Raul Ibañez’s leadoff fly for a three-base error.

Brandon Morrow, 2-0, got the victory. He replaced Baek with one out in the seventh and stranded runners at second and third. J.J. Putz pitched a scoreless ninth in a nonsave situation.

“You can say all you want about that one play,” Bell said. “The fact of the matter is, too, is we didn’t give ourselves a whole lot of opportunities to win this game. We got what? One run and five hits. You can’t win that way.”

[Radio_Bugtussle]

More telling in the Royals loss were the 11 strikeouts by Royals hitters.

They're having a lot of bad at bats these days.

KC "hitters" struck out 13 times in a game late last week. Some guys are pressing, some simply aren't thinking and others do not belong on a major league roster.

[jim]

Tough break. But I can tell you from experience you basically have no control on those foul tips. They either go in your glove or they don't.

[Radio_Bugtussle]

Tough break. But I can tell you from experience you basically have no control on those foul tips. They either go in your glove or they don't.

The Royals radio broadcasters had no problem with the call. They repeatedly said that the umpire got it right.

The Royals have actually bottmed out. The way the Cardinals luck is running, they'll all figure out to hit just in time for the Cardinals series.

[vh2k6]

i don't think that beats ronny cedeno being out at 2nd on a walk.

screw you ronny

[StL Dan]

Tough break. But I can tell you from experience you basically have no control on those foul tips. They either go in your glove or they don't.

The Royals radio broadcasters had no problem with the call. They repeatedly said that the umpire got it right.

The Royals have actually bottmed out. The way the Cardinals luck is running, they'll all figure out to hit just in time for the Cardinals series.

Seems like that is the trend each time they meet.