Late Wednesday night, Los Angeles Angels’ manager Mike Scioscia had the official rulebook for Major League Baseball on his desk following the Angels loss to the Kansas City Royals 7-5.
Shortly after the media left the clubhouse, Phil Cuzzi the umpire who caused Scioscia to gripe met with the manager of the Angels behind closed doors. The meeting lasted for about 30 minutes as the two hashed out a critical play that took place during the seventh inning.
The play featured an errant throw by Matt Shoemaker, which may have cost Los Angeles the game and a sweep of the Royals.
The ball glanced off the leg of Mondesi and rolled all the way to short right field, which helped two runs score that tied the game and put Mondesi over at third.
Shoemaker said his angle was fine but his throw was bad. Scioscia then spent over 10 minutes arguing with game umpires that Mondesi has interfered with the ability of Shoemaker to throw the ball successfully to first.
The Angels at that time filed an official protest.
Games are not able to be played under protest on a judgment call, but Scioscia said the issue was the misinterpretation of the rule. Cuzzi according to the Angels manager admitted that Mondesi had been out of the baseline when Shoemaker made the throw, but said he had been allowed to so he could touch first base.
However, Scioscia says Mondesi had been out of the baseline for the entire time. The Angels manager says the problem is the rule was misinterpreted making a call that no judgment had been involved.
Cuzzi, the crew chief and home plate umpire in the game was not allowed to make any comment due to the protest by the Angels.
Major League Baseball will make a rule on this game within a few days and if upheld the two teams will re-start the game from that incident at some point when they each have the same day off.
It has been nearly two years since a protest was upheld in a game between the Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants at Wrigley Field on August 19, 2014. Prior to that protest being upheld the last one had been 28 years earlier.
The argument of Scioscia rests on the umpire admitting Mondesi had been inside the line but was allowed to be there, as opposed to saying that Mondesi was not inside, which would have then been a judgment call.
