PITTSBURGH -- Sometimes hard contact can result in an out. Those outs usually aren¡¯t made after the ball lands in front of the left fielder, though.
In the sixth inning of Wednesday's 6-1 win against Washington at PNC Park, Tommy Pham lined a ball that dropped just in front of Nationals left fielder James Wood. Third-base umpire Alex Tosi signaled safe and that it was a hit, but Oneil Cruz, the runner on first, appeared to not be able to read if it was a catch or not. After some hesitation, he went back to first base, where Wood delivered a strike to first baseman Nathaniel Lowe.
Tommy Pham did not reach the bag on the play, throwing up his arms as Cruz raced back to first base. Lowe stepped on the bag first and then applied a tag to Cruz, but Cruz was safe because he was no longer forced to go to second after Lowe stepped on the base.
¡°There's really nothing you can do there,¡± Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. ¡°Oneil can't look at the third-base umpire to see what the call is. You don't know, I mean, two people on the field thought he caught the ball, one person thought he didn't. He didn't catch the ball. There is nothing you can do.¡±
Even if no one is really at fault ¨C Cruz thought the ball was caught and hustled to not get doubled off ¨C Lowe¡¯s assessment of the sequence of events might sum it up best: ¡°What a wild play, huh?¡±
¡°Interesting out there,¡± Lowe said. ¡°But obviously since it was a trap and the batter didn't make it to first base, that's how it goes. But I think all of us looked at the second-base umpire for the call when the third-base umpire went out for it, so we didn't really know -- runner included -- what was going on."
The Pirates would not score in the inning, but Cruz would get a chance at redemption in the seventh, hitting a grand slam that essentially sealed the Pirates' win.
A 7-3 putout is extremely rare, but not unheard of, and Pham now joins a small fraternity that includes players like Paul Molitor, Kevin Elster and Sean Casey.