BOSTON — The Red Sox needed some extra-innings heroics from Rafael Devers to walk off with a 3-2 win in the 10th inning of Wednesday’s rubber game against the Mariners. If not for a controversial play three innings earlier, they might have won earlier.
With runners on first and second in the bottom of the seventh, Rafael Devers came to the plate against reliever Taylor Saucedo and hit a pop up to second base for the second out of the inning. Jorge Polanco caught it easily. On the play, Tyler O’Neill — on first after working a walk — got tangled up with first baseman Justin Turner as he tried to retreat to the bag. An innocuous-looking play quickly turned into a nightmare for the Red Sox when first base umpire John Bacon ruled that O’Neill had interfered on the play and called him out to end the inning.
It’s no guarantee that on-deck hitter Rob Refsnyder would have driven in a run, but the moment still represented a big momentum-killer for the Red Sox. Both O’Neill and manager Alex Cora argued the call to no avail and the game stayed tied.
O’Neill, who scored the winning run on Devers’ double in the 10th, was not thrilled about the call.
“It was a pop-up there,” O’Neill said. “I went through my secondary (lead) and took one step back and had Turner under my elbow bobbing me around a little bit. I was a little surprised with the ruling. Not too sure what happened there.
“I don’t know what else I can do, honestly. I took a step back towards the bag. I wasn’t making an effort to get (in the way). I didn’t think there was anyone that was going to be in the way to begin with. It definitely felt like there was some intent there. That’s tough luck. It wasn’t even Turner’s ball. He didn’t end up catching it, so I don’t know.
“Andy Fletcher, the umpire (crew chief), said it was a new rule from MLB. I’m not too sure how that works. MLB is able to just flip the switch on us and switch some rules up and I mean, it’s up to us to keep up to date with those.”
Cora explained that the interference rule is in place so that runners simply give a chance to catch or field a ball. He also said the infield fly rule was in place because two men were on.
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“It’s infield fly. The batter is out,” Cora said. “Then he was out because he impeded the fielder to catch the ball.
“First of all, J.T. didn’t catch the ball. The ball was at second base. We’ll see. I’ll probably explain it on Friday because I want the league to take a look at the play and how it developed and go from there.”
Cora let Fletcher and the rest of the crew know that he thought the enforcement of the rule made no sense.
“If you want Tyler to avoid the fielder, how do we accomplish that?” Cora said. “Because he’s going back to the bag, looking at the ball going back to the bag. J.T., I don’t know if the intention was going straight to the runner or if he was actually going for the fly ball. If he goes to the grass and they dropped the ball, he’s gonna be out. If he goes to second and they drop the ball, he’s gonna be out. It’s hard to become invisible.”
