Trey Mancini was called out at first base on a rare tag play on Thursday, and the Baltimore Orioles star was understandably dumbfounded.
Mancini hit a routine grounder to second base during the fourth inning of Baltimore’s game against the Oakland A’s. Nick Allen’s throw to first was a bit off the mark and got by Seth Brown. A’s catcher Sean Murphy was backing up the play, and he scooped up the ball and tagged Mancini before he got back to the bag. Umpire Rob Drake called Mancini out.
Here’s the play:
Players can run through first base and not be tagged out as long as they do not make a motion toward second. Drake felt that the very slight move from Mancini was enough to make him eligible to be tagged out.
It probably did not help Mancini’s case that Orioles first base coach Jose Hernandez was telling him to get back to the bag. Still, that seemed like a questionable call at best. Even if Mancini took half a step into fair territory, he did not make any real motion toward second. We would bet that 99 times out of 100 that call goes in favor of the runner.
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