Padres News: Umpire in Question Shares Final Word on Controversial Wednesday Decision
At this point, everybody is well-aware of what went down in the middle of the San Diego Padres' third straight loss to a red-hot San Fransisco Giants group. Much of their struggles have been due to them not being able to bring in runners that make it to base time and time again but the umpires also played a key role in how the outcome of the game turned out.
Fernando Tatis Jr. ensured to send a ball flying perfectly to Gary Sanchez in the fifth inning so he could tag out a flying Blake Sabol before he made it home and it should've kept the Giants scoreless at that point. Instead, the umpires opted to stop the game for about 15 minutes while they reviewed the play and determined that, despite distancing rules, Sanchez was blocking his base path and SF was rewarded with a run.
Everybody, and I mean everybody, from the Friars was fed up after one and team manager Bob Melvin even got ejected for his reactions. San Diego's superstars led the media know just how upset they were about the decision following their loss and Manny Machado believes that the delay hurt Yu Darvish. Fernando Tatis Jr. labeled it as something that took the air out of them.
The umpire at home plate, Quinn Wolcott, revealed that he was focused on what was in front of him and can't control everything.
“I don’t worry about starting position,” said Wolcott. “It’s hard enough to officiate that play. I need to read the throw to get in position to see a tag. So I don’t watch starting position; it’s not something I can see out there. So I just try to officiate out/safe at the plate. The blocking thing — kind of similar to some other plays we have — we just let that go to New York for them to sort out.”
(Via The San Diego-Union Tribune)
It is definitely now behind us and hopefully umpires can learn moving forward.
