A controversial call in the Rangers' 7-6 loss to the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night took over MLB Twitter.
Tied at 6-6 in the bottom of the eighth, the White Sox scored the winning run in an eventual 7-6 victory when Rangers catcher Jonah Heim was surprisingly called for a blocking-the-plate violation upon a replay review. The drama started with White Sox infielder Elvis Andrus sprinting home from second base on rookie Zach Remillard’s soft single to left field, where the Rangers’ Travis Jankowski fired a great throw to the plate that just beat Andrus, who was called out on the field. With the play being so close, the White Sox challenged the call, where upon review Andrus was ruled safe – not for beating the throw but because Heim was cited for illegally blocking the plate.
The reactions from NBC Sports Chicago's announcers to the ruling are all you need to hear to know that whoever was in the MLB replay center last night botched the call.
Rangers manager Bruce Bochy, who was ejected after protesting the overturned call, lambasted the replay center's ruling during his postgame visit with Bally Sports Southwest.
"For that call to be made. I'm dumbfounded. It's absolutely one of the worst calls I've ever seen. And it was done by replay. I just don't get it. I don't care how many times they try to explain it. You can't do that in that situation. It's a shame. It's embarrassing, really," Bochy said. "There was never any contact with the catcher. It was a sweet tag. I don't get it. I really don't. I'm shocked. Jonah (Heim) did a great job there. The throw took him to the left a little bit. [He made] a sweet tag. I'm lost on this one. That's a tough one to take."
Heim also didn't have a good explanation for why he was called for catcher interference.
"I set up like we were taught to set up on the corner of the plate. The ball took me up the line. I even backed up a little bit. He had the whole front of the plate to slide into, so I'm not really sure what else I need to do there," Heim said.
105.3 The Fan's Mike Bacsik was one of the analysts on Bally's Rangers postgame show Tuesday night, and he couldn't comprehend why Heim was ruled to have been blocking the plate.
"If that's blocking the plate, on close plays where you have to catch the ball and apply a tag, then every human being who slides into home plate is safe for the rest of the history of baseball," Bacsik said. "Unless the catcher catches the ball and then dives his whole body out of the way of home to then Superman tag the guy at home plate, then we have a play where you did not block home plate. … That's a joke. Whoever is doing their job in New York - that's a joke."
MLB Twitter agreed with that sentiment.