Click the pic to see video of the play! Balking the controversy! Talk the Balk!
Stealing Home – can you balk the balk?
Last night during the Minnesota Twins game against the Kansas City Royals, there was a controversial play in the top of the 2nd inning. With the Twins up 3-0, the bases loaded and 2 outs, Kennys Vargas was at the plate, Torii Hunter was on 3rd, Joe Mauer was on 2nd and Brian Dozier was on 1st. The count was 0 and 1 after Vargas fouled off the 1st pitch of the at-bat.
As Royals starting pitcher Jeremy Guthrie started his wind up for the pitch, Torii broke for home to try to steal a run. Guthrie sped up his delivery, throwing a perfectly placed ball to get Hunter a few feet before he slides into home.
Minnesota Twins manager Paul Molitor came out to get an explanation on the call as you can’t argue or review a balk. The umpires huddled together for a minute or so and explained the call, Hunter was out. End of the top of the 2nd inning.
The balk rule seems to always cause controversy and in this case, it involves a few things that are out of the ordinary for a pitcher’s motion to home plate. Guthrie starts his windup and isn’t paying attention to Torii at 3rd base. He’s actually looking down as he starts his windup. As soon as he notices Torii breaking for home, he speeds up his delivery and actually throws the ball before his front foot touches the ground.
This, of course, sparks a discussion about the balk rule and how to interpret it. Feel free to go to TwinsDaily.com‘s article “Was this a Balk?” to get in on the conversation. I commented quite a bit for a balk as the “alteration” of Jeremy Guthrie’s delivery is the reason the play was made. So, I’m either interpreting the rule wrong, just plain wrong or they need a better explanation of some of the rule. There’s plenty of players, managers and umpires in baseball that disagree with what a balk is so I’m not discouraged that I have yet to figure it out.
What about the actual play?
We can argue until we run out of oxygen about how to interpret the balk rule but we may be missing the bigger picture of the play that was attempted. Torii Hunter, with the bases loaded, 2 outs and powerful Kennys Vargas at the plate, ended the inning by getting caught stealing. That’s pretty much always frowned upon and a bad play. I know I reacted negatively about it think what was he thinking?
After the game, Paul Molitor did say he gave a nod to Torii so it wasn’t just Torii trying to steal home by himself. After having some time to think about it and hearing Paul Molitor’s thoughts on the play, I changed my thinking about it. Bear with me!
Obviously, it’s a negative play because we don’t know how Kennys Vargas’ at-bat ends up. He could get a hit that should score two runs. A double probably clears the bases and, of course, a Grand Slam would be the ultimate result. There could be a wild pitch, a walk a balk (sorry!) or a hit by a pitch as well. Of course, those are the positives that result in some type of score happening but it could go negative too. He could strikeout, ground out, fly out or pop out too.
Kennys Vargas was 3-for-27 hitting from the left side against right-handed pitchers before that at-bat and the 3rd hit happened in the 1st inning. So, Paul Molitor knows the situation with his hitter struggling against righties and has the awareness of the situation to look for the opportunity to steal home there. More importantly, he has put that awareness in his player’s minds too. No, it didn’t turn out the way they wanted but it’d good to know the Twins are looking for the opportunities to score in any way possible.
That makes two nights in a row that Paul Molitor has made a managerial decision that means this will be a different kind of season for the Minnesota Twins. Last night, he brought in closer Glen Perkins in the 8th inning of a tie game to try to get the Twins out of the inning. That means he used his best pitcher in a tough situation.
That’s my Take on the Twins for today. Let us know what your ‘Takes are in the comments, on Twitter, Facebook and/or Google+! After all out slogan is….
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