The White Sox were in the midst of a comeback attempt in the ninth inning on Thursday night, but they fell short in one of the most bizarre and unlikely calls one will ever see at the end of a baseball game.
Chicago, which trailed the Orioles 8-2 going into the bottom of the ninth, scored four in the final frame with outfielder Andrew Benintendi up as the potential winning runner.
Benintendi, though, popped up a Craig Kimbrel pitch to shortstop Gunnar Henderson as Adrian Johnson signaled for an infield fly rule for an automatic second out.
But then, confusion ensued as the umpires ended the game, calling baserunner Andrew Vaughn also out for seemingly interfering with Henderson fielding the ball.
Henderson appeared to slightly bump into a slow-retreating Vaughn as he camped underneath the sky-high pop-up, but it was enough for umpires to call interference on the White Sox baserunner on the play.
White Sox manager Pedro Grifol was livid with the shocking double play call, coming out of the home dugout to argue the call, but nothing changed, as the Orioles had held on for an 8-6 victory.
John Schriffen, calling the game for NBC Sports Chicago, was completely incensed with how the game came to a conclusion.
“No, they can’t end the game like this!” Schriffen defiantly said while watching the replay of the pop-out. “Now way. Adrian Johnson, as the crew chief, you gotta take over here. That cannot be how this game ends.”
“That’s a terrible call,” analyst Steve Stone chimed in. “Andrew had no idea where he was, and Henderson went around. He didn’t interfere, he made the catch, it was an automatic out anyways, this is a horrible ending to this game.”
“We’ve seen some bad calls this season, that is one of the worst calls that I’ve ever seen,” Schriffen added. “Vaughn is walking back to the bag, with his back to the fielder, and they end the game like this? C’mon, what is this nonsense?”
Johnson, after the game, said that the letter of the law dictates the call, and that the play was called correctly, according to the Associated Press.
Either way, it was a tough one for the White Sox to swallow.
