The Tampa Bay Rays found a strange way to take advantage of the extra innings rule against the Boston Red Sox on Monday.
The Rays led the Red Sox 11-9 in the 10th inning of a wild game at Fenway Park Monday afternoon. The Red Sox began the inning with an automatic runner at second. The run didn’t necessarily matter because the Rays were holding a two-run lead. However, Tampa Bay appeared to have concerns about the Red Sox using the runner at second to peek at the catcher’s signs.
The Rays responded with an unorthodox strategy: pitcher Collin McHugh committed an intentional balk to move the runner to third. McHugh turned and faked a throw to unoccupied third base with his foot on the rubber.
On the Collin McHugh balk:
This was on purpose. Runner starts on second (doesn’t count as an earned run if he scores), also they are up 2 runs. That runner does not matter. Get him off of second base therefore less worry about signs
— Ben Verlander (@BenVerlander) September 6, 2021
The initial confusion is understandable, but the move is actually quite clever. The run is irrelevant, the double play isn’t in order, and there’s no real difference between the runner’s placement at second or third. The only real issue is sign-stealing, which is far less of a concern with the runner on third than at second.
It’s hard to tell whether the strategy worked, as the runner scored on a Jose Iglesias single, and the Red Sox later loaded the bases after an error and a walk. The Rays did end up closing out an 11-10 win when Boston’s Kevin Plawecki grounded out with the bases loaded and two out.
This capped off what turned out to be a pretty bizarre game that the Rays only got back into thanks to some ridiculously bad play on Boston’s part. The Rays were just playing smarter baseball. Maybe the intentional balk was further evidence of that.
