Why Blue Jays' Addison Barger was only given a double on dead ball lodged under centerfield wall

Billy Heyen

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Why Blue Jays' Addison Barger was only given a double on dead ball lodged under centerfield wall image

The Toronto Blue Jays got unlucky.

There's really no other way of looking at what happened to Addison Barger as the second batter of the bottom of the ninth inning, trailing the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-1 in World Series Game 6.

Barger crushed a ball to deep centerfield. Myles Straw was on first and set to score easily.

But the ball somehow wedged itself under the centerfield wall. Not by a lot, but enough.

It was ruled a ground-rule double, leaving Barger at second and Straw at third, and Tyler Glasnow worked a great escape to preserve the 3-1 win.

It's not something you see every day, so this is why it happened.

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Why was Addison Barger's hit that wedged under the wall just a double?

This is something defined in every ballpark's ground rules that the umpires know before a game.

In pretty much any ballpark, the ball that wedges under the wall or rolls under the wall is going to be a ground-rule double.

The tricky aspects come into play if the outfielder attempts to play the ball, or if the umpire goes out and deems the ball wasn't wedged.

If the L.A. Centerfielder attempts to play the ball here, then it's a live play. It only is dead when he puts his arms up and then the umpire confirms that it was wedged.

If the ump had determined it wasn't wedged, he would then have to use judgment to place the runners appropriately.

But in this case, the outfielder did what he was supposed to do, and the ball was deemed stuck under the wall as defined in the ground rules, giving each player involved just two bases.

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News Correspondent