A-Rod a bigger villain in one swipe
It was an innocent enough looking roller. But, almost immediately, you sensed something weird was going to happen to the Red Sox at a critical juncture of a game they could not afford to lose.
The two players most likely to be involved in fielding the eighth-inning roller, pitcher Bronson Arroyo and first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz, both converged on the ball as the batter, Alex Rodriguez, tried to beat it out. Soon, both Red Sox players recognized the obvious: neither was covering first. Arroyo picked up the spinning squibber, put the ball in his glove, and went to tag A-Rod. Rodriguez, seeing what was developing, came down hard with a left-hand chop, knocking the ball out of Arroyo's glove and down the first-base line.
First base umpire Randy Marsh immediately signaled Rodriguez safe, even though a.) Rodriguez went out of the baseline, b.) never touched first base, and c.) is not allowed to chop Arroyo as he did. Derek Jeter, who had been on first when the play began, scored and, for one infamous moment, the Yankees were within a run, 4-3, and all you-know-what was breaking loose, again.
"I didn't know what the rule was," Arroyo said. "I wasn't sure what they were going to do. I was just putting a tag on him and he just chopped me across the arm. It was pretty obvious to me."
By now you know that the aforementioned scenario ended almost as quickly as it began, that the Red Sox held on for another dramatic win, 4-2, and that the ALCS is now knotted 3-3 with the winner-take-all game tonight. But for one fleeting moment, it appeared as if the Red Sox might again be victimized by the bizarre in the Bronx.
Almost immediately after the Rodriguez-Arroyo play, Red Sox manager Terry Francona was on his way to first base, pointing out to Marsh that what A-Rod did is not allowable. You can bump someone trying to tag you. You can run over the catcher if he's blocking home. But you can't do the tomahawk chop on a guy's arm. "What he did was completely unprofessional, and really hurt his team," said Boston's Kevin Millar. "It was an unprofessional play and he knows that. He has to brush his teeth and look at himself in the mirror in the morning."
Mientkiewicz said he thought he blocked Marsh out, and it turns out he did.
"I did not see Alex wave at him and knock the ball out," Marsh said. "In that situation, [plate umpire] Joe West could see it clearly. He was the man who really helped us out. He had the best shot. He was sure of it." Eventually, all six umpires converged, just as they had in the fourth inning, when they reversed a call and turned a double into a home run for Mark Bellhorn. (Also the correct call.) They emerged and dealt a 1-2 death knell to the supposedly rallying Yankees with another reversal for the heretofore historically burdened Red Sox.
Rodriguez was ruled out, but not simply a 1-U, as it would be if you were scoring at home. He was ruled out because of interference, which meant Jeter, who already was in the Yankee dugout celebrating his run, had to go back to first base. Not second base, where he would have ended up had Rodriguez been out in anything resembling a normal putout. On an interference call, runners must return to their original base.
"We try everything we possibly can to get the play correct," Marsh said. "What if we didn't? You'd have a lot to write about. It's better for the game. It's better for umpiring. You're trying to get the play correct."
Once that call was made -- and replays showed it again to be the correct call -- Joe Torre, the Yankees manager, emerged from the New York dugout, as he had in the fourth following the Bellhorn call. He had similar luck trying to get this reversal reversed. "There was also a Red Sox player in the base line and that can be obstruction," Torre said. "But it didn't go our way. I was upset it turned out the way it did."
The fans, predictably, did not react well to the development and showered the field with debris.
Eventually, order was restored. Gary Sheffield, who since the Game 3 massacre is 1 for 13, fouled out to catcher Jason Varitek and the Yankees' rally was over before it began. The Red Sox survived a nerve-racking ninth and, thanks in part to two reversed rulings in their favor in their one-time chamber of horrors, will play the Yankees one more time. 