WTF?!?

Two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning. The Red Sox are losing 3-0 to the Blue Jays. BJ Ryan is on the mound for Toronto. The Red Sox have one runner on first courtesy of a two out walk. Ryan rears back and throws and Crisp pops it up to short right field. The right fielder catches it for the third out. Game over.

Except, no.

The second base umpire ruled that Ryan balked when throwing the pitch, negating the pitch and Crisp's subsequent pop up. Strangely enough I noticed the balk and yelled it out just after it happened proving yet again that even a broken clock is right twice a day.

But the important part was that Crisp now wasn't out. Predictably Toronto Manager John Gibbons went nuts at the umps, dropping f-bombs left and right. But the umpire was correct. When throwing from the stretch position, as pitchers do when there is a runner on base (and may relievers do anyway), he must come to a stop at a 'set position' before throwing the pitch and Ryan very clearly wasn't doing that.

Watch the first ten second of Ryan in this video when nobody is on base. If there were men on, he would be required to come to a stop, but there aren't so he doesn't.



However, in the game there were men on, but he still threw exactly as in the video. No stopping. So, despite Gibbons setting the English language back three centuries with his profane Buzz Bissinger-esque diatribe (captured in close up by NESN HD), Ryan had balked, Crisp wasn't out, and the game wasn't over.

As anyone who watches sports on a regular basis knows, that just about guaranteed that Crisp would get a hit, which he did two pitches later.

But that wasn't the strange part. The strange part is after having the balk called on him, Ryan didn't change his motion one bit. He continued to not come set (i.e. balk) on every single pitch he threw in that game. And not one of them was called a balk. I don't get it. If the ump notices one you'd think he'd pick up on the next twelve in a row. But no.

So, the Sox lost, BJ Ryan balked on every pitch, and John Gibbons proved that screaming obscenities into the face of an umpire until he throws your ass out of the game can somehow work in your favor.