A critical call against Orioles has massive domino effect, and Blue Jays take advantage

TORONTO — Shane Baz had a right to be ticked off. He left the mound and kept staring back past second base, where umpire Nic Lentz stood with his back turned, facing the outfield. He eventually pointed toward Lentz and yelled in his direction.

This game shifted on a judgment call, and in the Orioles’ view it was a clear miss.

“The only reason I’m not going to talk about that play is I will get fined,” Baz said after Toronto’s 6-4 win Sunday. “So that’s the only reason.”

With runners on the corners and one out, Brandon Valenzuela hit a grounder near second base. Shortstop Gunnar Henderson, whose error the play before allowed Ernie Clement to reach first, fielded the dribbler and went to tag Clement. What happened next depends on point of view, but there is no debating the basic facts. With Henderson in his path, Clement maneuvered out of the way. Henderson abandoned the tag attempt and threw to first for an out.

Now here comes the debate. If Clement avoids Henderson’s tag attempt by moving 3 feet or more out of the basepath, he should be ruled out. It would have been an inning-ending double play. The Orioles clearly thought that should have been the case, and arguments to that effect came from Henderson, Baz, first baseman Pete Alonso and manager Craig Albernaz.

“I’m not going to go chase him to right field when I’m trying to turn a double play there,” Henderson said. “He’s only allotted so many feet to be considered in the baseline, and if you make a loop and slide to where you can’t even reach second base in the next two steps, I don’t really understand that. So, yeah, that was a new one for me, but, yeah, that was definitely, I felt like, not a great call.”

The reverse argument is that Henderson didn’t make a discernible attempt to tag Clement or that Clement didn’t exit the basepath. That is the argument Lentz made on the field when discussing the play with Albernaz, according to the Orioles manager’s retelling. He said Clement altered his path to second base to allow Henderson to field it, then didn’t exit the new basepath he created. Furthermore, Lentz told Albernaz, “Gunnar’s tag attempt wasn’t a good enough attempt.”

“I think, when you stick a glove out to tag somebody, that’s an attempt to tag,” Albernaz said. “There’s no rule about how far you have to extend your arm to tag somebody.”

In a postgame interview with a pool reporter, the umpires changed the explanation slightly. They said Clement moved his path to allow Henderson to field but didn’t make mention of whether Henderson’s tag attempt was good enough.

“He went out there to avoid the fielder from fielding the ball, and so once he was out there, that makes it his established basepath,” Lentz said.

Added crew chief Hunter Wendelstedt: “It actually is a very gentlemanly thing to do. He was getting out of the way to allow the fielder to make the play towards first base. It just so happened that, you know, then they tried to spin it to get two, but his [Clement’s] basepath was already established, and it was not trying to get out of that.”

The issue with that explanation is that Clement didn’t alter his path until well after Henderson had fielded the bouncing grounder. Only when Henderson ran toward him and reached out his arms did his path change.

Rule 5.09(b)(1) of Major League Baseball’s rulebook states that, “a runner’s base path is established when the tag attempt occurs and is a straight line from the runner to the base he is attempting to reach safely.”

If the explanation is that Henderson didn’t try hard enough to tag him, perhaps that’s one thing. Or that running at Clement is not a tag attempt. After the game, though, the umpires said the call was made because Clement had established a new basepath and didn’t exit it.

This was not a reviewable play. It’s an in-the-moment call, and depending on which side of the aisle one sits on in this Blue Jays-Orioles competition, the view may well be different.

What is undeniable is that the game swung in that moment, and when Baz left the mound, a four-run lead had vanished into a tie game. A fifth run in the sixth inning scored when Nathan Lukes hit an infield single against right-hander Yennier Cano, which sealed Toronto’s series-clinching 6-4 victory Sunday.

So Baz stared and chirped. He could’ve been out of the inning with only one run against him, when Yohendrick Piñango led off the sixth with a solo home run. But Henderson’s error on Clement’s grounder was the first issue, and then Lentz’s call exacerbated things.

The Blue Jays scored four more runs in the sixth inning, taking the lead.

“That wasn’t really what killed me. What killed me was the next two at-bats,” Baz said, indicating he could’ve shut the door. “I think I was a little bit predictable, and I think that’s what ultimately caused the big inning.”

Before all of that, the Orioles were on their way to a series win after posting a four-spot against right-hander Kevin Gausman in the fifth inning. Colton Cowser homered for the second straight game, Blaze Alexander scored Jackson Holliday with a double, and Taylor Ward powered a two-run shot to build the lead.

But it soon crumbled in the sixth, and even when Baltimore threatened in the seventh, the Orioles didn’t break through.

Tyler O’Neill led off the inning with a single, and Holliday walked. With two on, no outs and Alexander — one of Baltimore’s hottest hitters — at the plate, the Orioles decided to bunt both runners into scoring position.

Alexander’s bunt, however, was too close to home plate. O’Neill’s lead wasn’t large, either. Valenzuela, the catcher, scooped up the ball and fired to third for the first out. Then Ward grounded into an inning-ending double play.

There was also concern for catcher Samuel Basallo, who was on deck to hit in the eighth but left the on-deck circle and was pinch-hit for by Leody Taveras. In the bottom of the sixth, when Lukes reached on an infield single, Holliday’s throw to first was late. Alonso fired home because Andrés Giménez rounded third and attempted to score.

Giménez dove in ahead of Basallo’s tag, and Basallo stayed down holding his left arm. After several moments and a few practice catches, Basallo remained in the game until he was pinch-hit for. After the game, Albernaz said Basallo was fine.

“Sammy is learning,” Albernaz said. “He’s learning a lot how to play through being nicked up when everything is checked out and everything is fine. So Sammy’s learning to play through some adversity right now.”

The task of coming back became more difficult, too, when right-hander Rico Garcia allowed a homer to Valenzuela in the eighth.

There will be gripes about this one for a long time. They are probably justified — although they may depend on one’s point of view.

This article has been updated.