Andrew Vaughn couldn’t recall ever seeing anything like the finish of Thursday’s game against the Baltimore Orioles.
Vaughn was on second base and Gavin Sheets on first as the Chicago White Sox were attempting to complete an epic comeback.
Vaughn was called for interference as Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson made his way to catch Andrew Benintendi’s infield popup. The infield fly rule was in effect. And with the interference ruling, the game ended with the Sox suffering an 8-6 loss.
The odd sequence remained the talk around Guaranteed Rate Field on Friday afternoon. General manager Chris Getz confirmed the team heard from Major League Baseball.
“To end the game the way that it happened was disappointing because we didn’t get a chance to build off the momentum in the ninth inning, so that was the most disappointing part,” Getz said. “The uniqueness of how everything unfolded, the umpires were very confident in the calls that they made. I believe they remain confident and stick behind that. Gunnar Henderson, was he impeded by the play or not, he was able to get camped under there and make that catch so you’d have to ask him if he was impeded by Vaughn there.
“But the calls were made and we’ve got to live with it. We’ve talked to MLB, whether it be (manager) Pedro (Grifol), myself and others in the front office. I’ll keep those conversations private. It’s disappointing, just how the final inning unfolded considering the momentum it created.”
After the game, crew chief Adrian Johnson told a pool reporter: “The ball was hit and infield fly was ruled on the play. (Third-base umpire) Junior (Valentine) came in with interference on Andrew Vaughn, the runner on second base. Actually the shortstop made contact with him, so with the interference, that’s an out. And you still have the infield fly, and that’s an out also.”
Added Valentine: “There doesn’t have to actually even be contact. If he hinders the fielder in the attempt to field a batted ball, intent is not required and it’s interference. If you see the interference, you call it.”
Getz said MLB told him it was a judgment play.
“It’s a judgment call, there’s discretion by the umpire to make that call or not,” Getz said. “He made the call and we’ve got to live with it.”
Vaughn said after the game the ruling “was a big surprise.”
“I didn’t think he was deterred from making the play,” Vaughn said. “It was a high popup. We were all reading it, as a runner I have to read, I have to make sure I can get back to the bag, I was shuffling back to the bag.”
Grifol said Thursday that there wasn’t anything Vaughn could do in that instance.
“The ball goes up, he’s 10 feet from the bag,” Grifol said. “He takes two steps back toward the bag and he gets kind of grazed on the shoulder by Gunnar, who is going for the ball. (Henderson) took one step to his right, got on the infield, call the ball, made the catch no problem.
“I think everybody out there played it right. The runners played it right, Gunnar played it right, everything was done correctly as far as the players are concerned.”
Grifol thinks MLB will look into the play for the future.
“I think that it’s in everybody’s best interest — us, MLB, all 29 other teams — for there to be some clarity on this play, because this is going to happen again,” Grifol said. “I haven’t seen it in 30 years, but now that it happened I guarantee you we’ll see it again because everyone around the league looks at situations like this to create some form of advantage for their club to get a couple outs in a situation like this.”
The Sox had scored four runs in the ninth to pull within 8-6. They had runners on first and second with one out when the final play occurred.
“I’m not going to say we lost the game because of it, because there’s a fly ball we could have caught, there’s a 1-2 slider that was hit in the seats (for a three-run homer by Orioles Jorge Mateo),” Grifol said. “I get all that. But I would have loved to have another opportunity to see if we could tie this ballgame or even win it.
“I’m not blaming the game on this, but I am blaming that we didn’t get another opportunity on it. But any time something like this happens that the game can benefit from it, it’s important for everybody to really take a look at it and say ‘Well, this is something we’ve got to clean up, we’ve got to fix.’ It’s unfortunate we lost the game, but I’m hoping the game is better off for it.”
Injury updates
Getz said designated hitter Eloy Jiménez will miss “four to six weeks” after suffering a left hamstring strain Tuesday in Toronto.
The Sox placed reliever Dominic Leone on the 15-day IL on Friday with right elbow inflammation. They recalled pitcher Justin Anderson from Triple-A Charlotte.
