Astros star flips out on umpire after fan interference call changes triple to an out
The Houston Astros simply couldn’t catch a break Wednesday night in their 3-2 loss to the Colorado Rockies.
They managed only one hit the entire game, part of a weird fourth inning in which the hit — an RBI double by Jose Altuve — and two Colorado errors gave Houston their only runs of the contest.
One of their star relievers, Collin McHugh, who is normally lights-out, gave up a walkoff homer in the bottom of the ninth to Charlie Blackmon. The gopher ball raised McHugh’s ERA to 1.09, showing off just how rare it is to score on him.
But the bad break that really stuck in the craw of the American League West leaders and defending World Series champions was when Alex Bregman hit a triple in the sixth inning, only to have it overturned on replay as a result of fan interference.
The fan, wearing an Astros jersey at a Rockies home game, clearly reached over the wall and deflected the ball, ruining Colorado left fielder Gerardo Parra’s sight line as he tried to make a play.
— Patrick Kaple (@DFluckesFans) July 26, 2018
The Rockies challenged the hit, the umpires got together, saw the obvious on video, and invoked the rules of baseball to change the call to an out.
Rule 6.01(e) clearly states that “should a spectator reach out on the playing field side of such fence, railing or rope, and plainly prevent the fielder from catching the ball, then the batsman should be called out for the spectator’s interference.”
Bregman, however, didn’t see it that way.
“It was a f—ing joke, and they should be f—ing ashamed of themselves,” he told reporters of the umpires. “Obviously, the guy has never played f—ing baseball before in his life, the guy in charge of whoever made that decision. There is no possible way you can say that a left fielder jumping backward into a wall is guaranteed to make a catch.
“It changed the whole f—ing game. We’re up 2-1 at the time, I’m at third base. We need a fly ball to the outfield to get me in, and it’s 3-1. It’s f—ing horrible.”
Never mind the fact that — and this bears repeating — a grown man, wearing the jersey of the visiting team, showed up at a game wearing a baseball glove and reached over the fence. And yes, the guy got thrown out of Coors Field for interfering with a ball in play.
And as Barry Petchesky of Deadspin pointed out, “Interference calls should always go against the fandom of the dummy who interferes.”
Plus, Parra himself disagreed with Bregman’s assessment of his ability to catch that fly ball in the absence of fan interference.
“It almost hit me in the face,” he said. “I thought, ‘What happened? At the last second the ball moved.’ I never saw the fan touch the ball until I saw the replay, but I feel I would have had that ball.”
Another fan on Twitter pointed out that teams should perhaps do more to curb stupidity among their own fans.
Alex, maybe you can film a PSA about fan interference to show the Minute Maid crowd before home games? Most of the crowd are casuals and have no idea what these kind of interferences mean to those who really care about the Astros. @ABREG_1 #muchfrustration
— crustysairceparn (@crustysaucepan) July 26, 2018
And while we’re at it, how about “if you’re too old for Little League, leave the glove at home.”
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