At one point in the first inning against the Los Angeles Angels, the New York Yankees had the bases loaded, no outs and one manager. Two batters later they had no runs, three outs and no manager.
At the heart of that transition was a truly bizarre play involving Juan Soto.
As the Yankees threatened multiple runs against Tyler Anderson at Angel Stadium, designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton hit a pop fly that was called via the infield fly rule before it even landed. However, he did land when Angels shortstop Zach Neto tried to catch him.
Neto stood next to second base, tracked the ball and took an abrupt step back, straight into Soto as the All-Star slugger reached back toward second base. Neto fell and failed to catch the ball.
Soto was called for interference, which led to an irate Yankees manager Aaron Boone stepping out to plead his player’s case. His reward was expulsion.
The result of the pop-fly was a double play. The Yankees’ next batter, Alex Verdugo, grounded out and ended the threat.
In case you’re not well versed in the inbounds section of the MLB rulebook, it explicitly states that inbounds are live balls. What that means to the umpires is that Soto still interfered with a fielder trying to make a play on a batted ball, even though the batter was already out.
Bizarrely, this is only the second time a runner has been called for interference on an infield fly rule, after the Chicago White Sox felt the sting on a game-ending play on Thursday. In that case, however, Vaughn was lightly grazed by Baltimore Orioles short stop Gunnar Henderson, who still caught the ball easily.
The White Sox also objected to the call and were reportedly vindicated the next day when MLB told them the umpires should not have called. Due to the different context and strength of the contact, the Yankees may not see a similar comment.
The good news for the Yankees is that New Yorkers had something even wilder to talk about Wednesday night.
