Scioscia protests game after lengthy dispute

KANSAS CITY — The official rule book sat on the desk of Mike Scioscia’s office from Kauffman Stadium late Wednesday night, half open and lying flat moments after the Angels filed a protest for a game they lost, 7-5.

Shortly after Scioscia’s media scrum, the umpire responsible for his gripe, Phil Cuzzi, met with the Angels’ manager behind closed doors for about a half-hour, hashing out a critical seventh-inning play that featured an errant throw by Matt Shoemaker that might have cost the Angels a sweep.

With none out, runners on first and second and the Angels leading, 3-1, in the seventh inning, rookie speedster Raul Mondesi laid down a sacrifice bunt. Shoemaker fielded it cleanly, but Mondesi was already nearing first base by the time he set his feet to throw. The baseball glanced off Mondesi’s leg and rolled into right field, scoring the two game-tying runs and putting Mondesi on third after his first Major League hit.

“I had an angle; I just made a bad throw,” Shoemaker said. “The worst part is that he was probably going to be safe anyway.”

Scioscia spent the next 10 or so minutes arguing with the umpires, stating that Mondesi interfered with Shoemaker’s ability to successfully throw the ball to first base, and in that time the Angels filed a protest.

Games cannot be played under protest on the basis of judgment calls, but Scioscia stressed that the issue was a misinterpretation of the rules on Cuzzi’s behalf. Cuzzi, according to Scioscia, admitted that Mondesi was out of the baseline when the throw came in, but said he was allowed to be in order to touch the base. But Scioscia believes Mondesi was out of the baseline the entire time.

“The question wasn’t if the throw impeded him, or if he impeded the throw,” Scioscia said. “The question wasn’t if he was running …

continue reading in source mlb.mlb.com