With the Toronto Blue Jays leading 4-0 in the bottom of the third inning on Tuesday night against the Tampa Bay Rays, controversy struck.
With two runners on, on the eighth pitch of an at-bat between José Berríos and Brandon Lowe, the Rays second baseman lifted a 2-2 changeup deep to the right-field wall, where a fan reached out and caught the ball over the top of a leaping Nathan Lukes.
The Blue Jays immediately asked for a crew chief review on the play, thinking that the fan may have reached into play to make the grab.
MLB defines spectator interference as the following:
In every case of spectator interference with a batted or thrown ball, the ball shall be declared dead and the baserunners can be placed where the umpire determines they would have been without the interference. When a spectator clearly prevents a fielder from catching a fly ball by reaching onto the field of play, the batter shall be ruled out. But no interference is called if a spectator comes in contact with a batted or thrown ball without reaching onto the field of play — even if a fielder might have caught the ball had the spectator not been there.
So, when crew chief Laz Diaz announced that “there is fan interference, but the ball would have been a home run anyway, so it’s a home run,” many were left confused on the ruling.
Some clarification was offered when Sportsnet’s Dan Shulman read out an email from MLB on the broadcast regarding the call, which said that “the replay official determined spectator interference occurred; however, the replay official could not definitively determine that the ball would not have left the field of play had spectator interference not occurred.”
So, since the replay officials could say that there was interference, but couldn’t say whether the ball would have cleared the fence or not, they went with the call on the field, which was that it was a home run.
The Rays’ temporary home at George M. Steinbrenner Field seemed to only complicate matters, as the Yankees’ spring training home isn’t quite outfitted with the same high-tech cameras that a traditional MLB ballpark may have.
It wasn’t the only moment of controversy for Lukes, who was immediately involved in a similar play in the top of the fourth.
The Blue Jays outfielder hit a ball to the very same right-field wall, where Josh Lowe saw the ball tick off his glove before hitting a fan.
The initial ruling was that the ball stayed in the field of play, but after another crew chief review, Lukes was awarded a home run of his own, snapping a 35-game drought.
