Dropped third strike and interference - Baseball Rules Academy

This topic has 1 reply, 2 voices, and was last updated 2 years, 1 month ago by nbkhgkhg.

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- March 16, 2022 at 5:19 am
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J.D. Leenen
Participant

Situation: R3, less than 2 outs; third strike gets away from the catchers and R3 goes for homeplate; catcher recovers the ball and throws to the pitcher covering homeplate; however, the batter-runner is still standing there and interfering with the play at homeplate; what is the proper call?

It seems that rule 6.01 a(1) is not applicable, since the catcher has been able to field the ball, but that 6.01 a(3), hindering a fielder in making a play at home plate, should be applied and thus the runner is out; on interference the ball is dead; but what happens to the batter-runner? Could you call him out for giving up his right to go to 1B?

Please advise,

JDL

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- - March 16, 2022 at 4:15 pm
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  nbkhgkhg
  Participant
  Hi JD,
  
  here is how I see it (under the condition that the batter runner does not intentionally interfere with the fielder):
  
  I agree that rule 6.01 a(1) is not applicable, since the catcher has been able to field the ball.
  
  6.01 a(3), however, is IMO not applicable either, since that only applies to the batter, and this batter has already become a (batter-)runner when the third strike was not caught
  
  You can’t call him out for abandoning base path after third strike not caught, since he hasn’t left the dirt circle surrounding home plate (see 5.05 (a)(2) Comment)
  
  Therefore, since we have a runner who unintentionally hinders a fielder fielding a thrown ball, I would say that there is no rule violation and the ball remains in play.

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