Braxton Ashcraft was walking off, probably thinking he was done for the night. He had just gotten Jake Cronenworth to ground out with a runner on third, completing six solid innings while the Pirates held a 2-0 lead over the Padres. But then came the surprise that left him stunned.
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Well, home plate umpire Dan Merzel called him back. He called a balk on Ashcraft, sending Freddy Fermin home from third. And just like that, the lead was down to one, and Ashcraft had some more work to do.
The look on Ashcraft’s face said it all: utter disbelief. And well, let’s just say he wasn’t the only one left confused.
Even the broadcasters had no idea what was happening, blurting out, “Wait, wait, what happened?” and then, “How could that be?”
Of course, Ashcraft wasn’t thrilled. And he was pretty vocal about it. “Yeah, I think it’s the dumbest rule in baseball,” he said. “But it is a rule.”
And as he said, a rule is a rule, so he had to go back to work. He threw for another 15 pitches, pushing his pitch count to 91. Anywho, coming back to the rule, it is truly one of baseball’s more obscure rules.
So, with a runner on third, a pitcher using the windup has to declare that intention before the at-bat. Now, Ashcraft has done exactly that before he faced Fernando Tatis Jr., but according to Pirates manager Don Kelly, he didn’t make the declaration again before Cronenworth’s at-bat. That was enough for Merzel to call the balk.
“Unfortunate, just didn’t declare for the second batter,” Kelly said. “Sometimes I don’t understand that rule because he declared for the first one and feel like it should stay until we want to switch it. That’s not the rule.”
Later, Ashcraft did admit that the rule had simply slipped his mind in the middle of the big moment. He also said he had gone from the windup for multiple batters earlier this season without declaring again and had gotten away with it. Well, maybe it’s his luck, or maybe he just didn’t get the same umpire crew!
This is because, believe it or not, this isn’t the first time the same umpire crew has been involved in this kind of situation. In fact, something similar happened just earlier this month.
On August 8, Braves ace Chris Sale was nailed by the same crew for almost the same run-scoring balk against the Yankees after Dan Merzel ruled he had not properly declared his windup with a runner on third.
Spencer Jones was handed home plate, the Braves lost the lead, and Walt Weiss was ejected arguing a rule he said he had never even heard of. Dan Bellino later defended the call by explaining that hybrid pitchers have to declare their position.
“I’m just going to leave it to them (Merzel and Weiss),” Sale had said then. But Ashcraft wants this rule to be looked at more closely.
“It’s something that I believe that coming up in the next year or so we certainly should look at it as players with the league in and of itself,” he said.
He also mentioned that the rule can change a game over “a little nuance” that doesn’t affect the actual pitch. Well, for sure, the balk could have been a major turning point for Pittsburgh.
Cronenworth singled after returning to the plate, and Ashcraft needed another eight pitches to get Manny Machado to ground out.
The extra work kept him from reaching the seventh. But the Pirates ultimately made sure it didn’t cost their game. The Padres tied things in the eight, but Pittsburgh won 3-2 in the 12th on a Nick Gonzales RBI single.
Ashcraft didn’t get the win, but he still finished with six innings, four hits, one walk, and one run allowed. While the final score went in their favor, the controversial call stole much of the spotlight. And fans were quick to react to the strangeness of the call.
Pirates fans aren’t buying this one
One fan did not even bother debating the rule, simply calling it an “absurd call.” Plenty of others agreed, but some focused on what made the whole thing look even worse:
The timing of the balk call.
One fan wrote, “It’s a bad look because the ump waited until the out was made before saying anything about it.”
They argue the point of waiting till the fielders made the final out and started walking toward their dugout when it was supposed to be a dead ball. And the fact that it reduced the gap between the teams made many Pirates diehards furious.
But some chose sarcasm instead of calling the officials biased.
“Well, you see, it’s because he didn’t buy the umpire dinner,” read one comment. “No idea, still in shock,” read another.
But some of them pointed out the specific rule behind the umpire’s decision.
One of them commented, “He’s got to declare whether he’s going from the stretch or windup with a runner on third.”
The balk rule remains one of baseball’s messiest technical traps, and Ashcraft showed how quickly even a major-league pitcher can get burned by it.
Still, Pittsburgh can live with the controversy because it escaped with the win.
After getting swept by the Dodgers, the Pirates badly needed something to stop the slide, especially with their Wild Card hopes already hanging by a thread at 8.5 games back.