The Toronto Blue Jays ' slim playoff hopes ended on Wednesday afternoon.
They lost the first game of a doubleheader against the Baltimore Orioles , and so it was official — they were eliminated from postseason contention.
So that means that what happened on Wednesday night, in the second game of the doubleheader, didn't really matter.
But the Blue Jays did win one of the weirdest challenges you'll see all season.
The Blue Jays challenged that the Orioles' second baseman, Jeremiah Jackson , had his foot on the outfield grass when the pitch was made.
And in MLB's current shift rules, that's not allowed.
Infielders had begun to play in shallow right field against pull-orineted lefty hitters, and the league didn't want that. So part of their shift rules require infielders to all be on the dirt.
Jackson wasn't entirely on the dirt.
It was close, as can be seen from the Sportsnet television broadcast — but Jackson's foot was indeed on the grass when the pitch was made:
Clearly, that's something the Blue Jays had to be looking for. You wouldn't challenge that unless you specifically were keeping an eye on the feet of infielders.
There's also the matter of what happens if you get this right — and by the rule, it awards the hitter, in this case Sean Keys , first base automatically.
So wait, what happens to Keys' stats?
He's standing in the box, and the Orioles more or less give him first base freely. But how does it count?
It goes into the books as a defensive shift violation error on the second baseman Jackson.
Except unlike an error on a ball the batter puts in play, this one doesn't count as an at bat for Keys.
A quick look through the MLB official score tracker doesn't really show any indication that it happened. The play-by-play has the moment in there, but the box score portion is almost as if Keys just never went to the plate there.
Keys hasn't been hitting great since arriving in the majors this season, and this isn't something that will help him break out of a slump or anything like that — but it was a baserunner for the Blue Jays on a bizarre challenge, and that's a small victory on a disappointing day for Toronto.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
The post Blue Jays Win Bizarre Challenge for Weird Rule vs. Orioles appeared first on HEAVY .
