The “unwritten rule” police have been out in full force this week, questioning whether Fernando Tatis Jr.’s eighth-inning grand slam Monday night—a game the Padres were winning by seven runs—violated baseball etiquette.
The current frontrunner for National League MVP honors, Tatis launched a 407-foot rope to right—his second bomb in as many innings—ruffling feathers by swinging away on a 3-0 count in San Diego’s 14-4 rout of Texas. Predictably, the Rangers were none too pleased at Tatis for running up the score, a sentiment expressed by Ian Gibaut, who responded by throwing behind Manny Machado the following at-bat. Gibaut was later suspended three games by MLB (pending appeal) while Texas skipper Chris Woodward was hit with a one-game ban, which he served Tuesday night.
Appearing on “The Poscast” with veteran baseball columnist Joe Posnanski and actress/Phillies enthusiast Ellen Adair, former National League MVP Ryan Howard shed some light on the Tatis controversy, suggesting a rule change that could eliminate tense situations like this in the future.
“I think there should be a ten-run rule after seven,” said Howard, alluding to the “mercy" rule used in college and international play including the World Baseball Classic. “You get your gate. Alcohol stops being served after the seventh inning. You save pitchers, you save players.”
Though admittedly radical, Howard’s point is well-taken. MLB has already reduced doubleheaders to seven innings this year in an effort to limit stress on bullpens amid a condensed 60-game schedule. If baseball purists weren’t already up in arms about expanded playoffs, three-batter minimums and extra innings beginning with a runner on second base, invoking the "mercy" rule might set them over the edge. But with the rest of baseball’s landscape changing, would scrapping the final two innings of a laugher really be that controversial? If nothing else, it would eliminate the charade of position players pitching (a trend we’ve seen more of in recent years) and some of the late-game pettiness that derailed Monday’s Padres/Rangers showdown in Texas.
“The only people who want to potentially continue to play is the one guy on the team that’s winning who hasn’t gotten a hit yet,” said Howard, a three-time All-Star who walloped 382 homers—tied for 69th all-time—over his 13 MLB seasons, all of which were spent in Philadelphia. “Other than that, when you get to a point to where a game is out of reach like that, everybody’s like ‘Hey this game is done, let’s just come back out tomorrow.’”
I doubt commissioner Rob Manfred would be persuaded to change a century-old rule simply because a former player suggested it on a podcast, but if keeping the peace is a priority for MLB, the league should at least consider Howard’s proposal.
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