Gio Urshela was 0-for-4 in the Yankees’ 3-2 loss in Detroit on Friday, but his lone offensive highlight was a walk he drew in the sixth inning…or did he?
Facing Kyle Funkhouser with one out, Urshela fell behind 1-2 before Funkhouser’s fourth pitch appeared to, and sounded like it did, ricochet off Urshela’s bat on a check swing for a foul ball, and was even called as such on the Yankees broadcast. Funkhouser then threw another ball, and after Urshela fouled off three straight pitches, the Tigers reliever threw one to the backstop – and Urshela dropped his bat, took off his shin guard, and trotted to first.
The problem? The count, at that point, may have been just 3-2. If that fourth pitch was a foul ball (which came after a called ball, foul ball, and called strike), Funkhouser’s fifth pitch would have made it 2-2 and that pitch to the backstop would’ve been ball three.
According to MLB rules, a ball that hits the catcher’s mitt outside the strike zone before hitting the bat is technically ruled a ball, so that could be how home plate umpire Vic Carapazza interpreted it.
Regardless, neither team protested the walk, and the Tigers were able to get out of the inning unscathed before eventually winning on a Robbie Grossman walk-off two-run homer in the tenth – which came on a 3-2 pitch that followed a borderline called Ball 3, one that appeared to be a strike three that would’ve ended the inning.
After the game, though, the mystery was solved, as crew chief Jerry Meals told pool reporter Noah Trister that Carapazza simply miscounted.
“It was a missed count. He went to first on three balls," Meals told Trister. “We would have went to replay and did a rules check, and would have corrected it that way, but I didn’t know anything about it until after the game.”
Take a look at Urshela’s plate appearance yourself:
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