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Umpire Marty Foster called Toronto's Whit Merrifield out on what would have been an inning-ending double play. The call was reversed by replay umpires, who said catcher Gary Sanchez broke baseball's rule about blocking home plate.
Cavan Biggio hit a sacrifice fly in the 10th inning and Whit Merrifield scored on an overturned call to lead the Toronto Blue Jays to a 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Sunday and split the four-game series.
Merrifield said of the game-winning replay review: “They looked at it and got it right."
The rule that resulted in Toronto scoring the winning run on Sunday was intended, as much as anything, to protect catchers from injury at home plate. Here's what the rule book says.
Twins catcher Gary Sanchez tagged out Toronto's Whit Merrifield trying to score the go-ahead run in the 10th inning, but a review ruled Sanchez blocked the plate without the ball and manager Rocco Baldelli was gone after his vehement disagreement with the ruling.