The Odd Play in Friday's A's/Yankees Game

In the top of the fifth inning of Friday's game between the New York Yankees and the Athletics, there were runners on first and second, and first baseman Paul Goldschmidt hit a high fly to center that A's centerfielder charged and dove for. The call from the third base umpire was a catch, while the second base umpire declared it a hit.

With no clear signal for how the play on the field should continue, Trent Grisham, the runner on second, bolted for home and scored without a throw. Bleday threw the ball in to second, either to get Grisham, who had run without tagging up, or Ben Rice, who had failed to run to second.

After the umpires huddled, they decided that Bleday had in fact trapped the ball, ruling it not a catch, and because of the confusion on the field, Grisham was called back and placed at third base, while Rice moved up to second and Goldschmidt got to go to first.

It seemed like a fair compromise, given that two umpires had different calls on the field, and that one team (the Yankees) reacted to one umpires decision, while the Athletics reacted to another.

Athletics on SI asked A's manager Mark Kotsay after the game about the play, and whether there was another way the umpires could have ruled, given that they missed he call on the field.

"I thought they got the call right. It's very difficult when you overturn a call on the field to judge where the runners may end up. In that situation, if Grisham hesitates and we throw home, there may be a play at the plate. So I thought they got the call exactly the way that they should have."

Yankees manager Aaron Boone was expressing some displeasure as the call was announced to the crowd, but in the end New York ended up scoring Grisham on a sac-fly from Jasson Dominguez, and then Anthony Volpe grounded out to shortstop, so everything was more or less put back the way it should have been so that both teams ended up happy.

It's an extremely difficult call to make after the fact for the umpires, and without favoring one team or another, they seemed to provide the most fair outcome for both teams.