PHILADELPHIA — José Caballero didn’t see eye-to-eye with the umpires again Saturday night.
This time, the disagreement came on defense, as Caballero initially appeared to catch a Bryson Stott line drive with one out and runners on first and second in the bottom of the fourth.
But Caballero dropped the Stott liner and headed to second base to tag Bryan De La Cruz, who had gone back to second.
Instead of being rewarded with a double play to end the inning, second base umpire Brennan Miller — of Savages in the Box fame — ruled that Caballero intentionally dropped the ball and the play was over, with only Stott retired and runners still on first and second.
Ryan Weathers ended up getting Derek Hill looking to end the inning to preserve a 1-1 tie.
The controversy came after Caballero found himself on the wrong side of MLB’s pitch clock rules.
He’s been able to unnerve pitchers with his routine in the batters’ box, often not engaging with the pitcher until the final second before a violation would be called.
But Caballero did that on Wednesday, when he was alert in advance of the eight-second cutoff — and was still called for a violation because he spent the final few seconds before the eight-second mark in the box but looking down.
MLB decided to crack down on his tactics beginning Wednesday, as it began restricting hitters from attempting “to deceive a pitcher into beginning their windup or coming to the set position.”
July 25. AP Photo/Chris Szagola
Caballero and Aaron Boone said they spoke with MLB to no avail.
“They [the league] are above and they control everything,” Caballero said Friday of the new interpretation of the rule. “We ain’t figuring this out. They say what they had to say. They’re the league, they control [things]. I just have to obey.”
