Astros complete historic 4-game sweep after controversial balk ruling
The Houston Astros completed their first ever four-game sweep of the Texas Rangers on Sunday in a game that was decided on a controversial call.
The Astros scored what turned out to be the winning run thanks to a balk by Rangers reliever Keone Kela on a quick pitch.
The balk allowed George Springer, who was on third base, to score and gave the Astros an 8-7 lead. Hector Rondon struck out the side in the bottom of the ninth to secure the win and the sweep.
The balk call was controversial because the umpires didn’t call it until Astros manager A.J. Hinch stormed out onto the field and complained.
The @Astros took down the #Rangers late on a controversial balk called in the top of the 9th inning. The balk was called after the play following an argument from manager AJ Hinch. #MLB pic.twitter.com/XmeVszAWuO
— Stadium (@Stadium) June 10, 2018
The umpires huddled together, after being alerted by Hinch, and then called a balk, waving Springer home. They ruled that Kela did not come to a full stop in his set, which he has to do when a runner is on third. It’s hard to tell in real-time if he did or not.
“It’s clear as day what happened,” Hinch said later, according to MLB.com. “It’s a weird play … caught everybody off-guard, including the umpire crew. It’s an illegal pitch with a runner on third. Kela does that all the time with nobody on third. He was so focused on the hitter, he decided to go to a quick pitch, which you can’t do. It’s a balk. Once the umpires convened, they got the call right.”
Crew chief Sam Holbrook offered the following explanation for originally missing the call:
“When he came and brought the pitch without stopping, we had to get together to make sure he hadn’t announced to (home plate umpire Alfonzo Marquez) that he was throwing from the windup position,” Holbrook said. “So when Fonzie said ‘No, he did not announce that to me,’ then he was throwing from the stretch position, and he did not stop, so that was what the balk was called for.”
Rangers manager Jeff Banister was clearly upset, as one might imagine.
“My concern is that nobody on the field originally called a balk,” Banister said. “There was nothing. No umpire called a balk. Their manager came out, and, I guess, was arguing for a balk. The explanation was to me was Keone didn’t tell anybody he was going out of the windup. Unfortunate. I’ve never seen a non-balk call turned over and called a balk.”
“My argument was I didn’t know we could come out and get the umpires to convene to see what everybody came up with,” added Banister, who was ejected from the game for arguing.
Kela indicated the balk was “frustrating,” but he took ownership of his mistake.
"It's unfortunate."
Keone Kela speaks on the balk call against him.#TexasRangers pic.twitter.com/EDpVG7SaZE
— Bally Sports Southwest (@BallySportsSW) June 10, 2018
“I didn’t know exactly what the call was,” Kela said after the game. “I’ve used the quick pitch a lot so when I came set I felt that I had come to a set stop and made my pitch. I guess … under the umpire’s discretion, it wasn’t enough time for me to hold the ball, so the runner got to advance.”
“It’s frustrating, but at the end of the day, there are certain rules that are laid down in this game and I have to abide by them because I’m a ballplayer and I have to understand those rules,” Kela added.
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