Padres unhappy with Anthony Rizzo for ‘cheap shot’ play at home plate

San Diego Padres catcher Austin Hedges helped preserve a 3-2 lead in his team’s win over the Chicago Cubs Monday night despite being on the receiving end of a play his manager labeled a “cheap shot.”

Kris Bryant lined out to center field with San Diego leading by a run in the sixth, and center fielder Matt Szczur made a strong throw home to beat Anthony Rizzo, who was tagging from third. Rizzo collided with Hedges, but Hedges held onto the ball.

MLB rules now prohibit baserunners from running into the catcher under certain circumstances, and Padres manager Andy Green clearly felt the new rules applied to that play.

“I think you look at that play and it’s a fairly egregious violation of the rule,” Green said, per ESPN.com. “The rule exists to protect the catcher. The safety of the catcher is more in jeopardy now when you have the rule to protect you because you’re not expecting to get hit when you give a guy a plate like that.

“That’s a cheap shot. I’m not saying he’s a dirty player at all — nobody is saying that — but he clearly deviated from his path to hit our catcher, took our catcher out. Rule exists to protect him. It’s a disheartening play to see come about like that.”

If the catcher is blocking home plate or standing in the base path, the runner can still plow into him. It’s tough to tell if that was the case with the Rizzo play.

“It’s one of those plays where it’s very sensitive,” Rizzo said. “It’s a play where I’m out by two steps. If I slide, he runs into me.

“I’ve talked to a lot of umpires about this rule. It’s my understanding if they have the ball, it’s game on.”

Even if Rizzo was told by an umpire that it’s “game on” if the catcher has the ball, that’s not really supposed to be the case. The runner is not supposed to initiate the contact if the catcher is not impeding his path, and Hedges said he “thought I gave him the plate.” Cubs manager Joe Maddon disagreed.

“You don’t see it anymore because the runner thinks he has to avoid [the catcher] — he doesn’t,” Maddon said. “If the guy’s in the way, you’re still able to hit him. I’d much prefer what Riz did tonight. What he did was right, absolutely right. There’s nothing wrong with that and nobody can tell me differently.”

The play was a bit more bang-bang than some of the home plate collisions we have seen in the past that resulted in injuries, and we can understand both sides of the argument. In a situation like that, the home plate umpire simply has to use his discretion.