Commentary: A Great Debut for a Not-So-Great Rule
Yesterday was historic for many reasons. Yoenis Cespedes became the first National League DH to hit a home run. Kyle Hendricks tossed the Cubs’ first Opening Day shutout since 1974. We even had a no-hit bid make it into the sixth inning. But amidst all the craziness of an amazing Opening Day slate, there was one historic moment that was still to be seen.
That was, until the end of the very last game. On Friday night, in a prime-time national broadcast, the Angels and the Athletics went to extra innings, meaning that baseball’s most hated new rule was going to make its debut.
Shortly before the restart of the season, MLB announced that as part of their special rules for 2020, every extra inning was going to start with a runner on second base. In many ways, it was a move that made sense. Because of the condensed nature of a 60-game season with few rest days and a very short training camp, MLB was looking to avoid 15+ inning games that would wear down a team’s roster even further. At the same time, they also wanted to avoid ties, keep games at a reasonable length for TV audiences, and add more excitement into the game. This rule is generally able to achieve all of these goals at once.
But even though it has been in place in the minor leagues since 2018 and there is sound reasoning for implementing the rule this season, it was met with instant and nearly unanimous backlash from the baseball community upon announcement. Even Cespedes Family BBQ, normally the champions of all things Weird Baseball, has been a vocal critic of the new rule.
However, despite the anger and criticism from fans, it became clear that MLB was not going to budge on the rule, at least for this season. This left everyone with only one option: to sit back and see what happens. So, in the top of the 10th inning of a 3-3 game, the scene was set. Shohei Ohtani jogged toward second base, instantly becoming the answer to yet another baseball trivia question.
And we were met with instant action. Rather than going for a sacrifice bunt, pinch-hitter Jared Walsh shot a rocket on the ground toward Matt Olson at first base, who picked it cleanly on a hop. Ohtani, seeing the ball was hit on the ground to the right side, took off running for third base. But in doing so, he greatly underestimated how hard the ball was hit and how strong Olson’s arm is. Rather than stepping on first base for the easy out, Olson fired the ball toward third, where Matt Chapman was waiting. A few seconds and a rundown later, Ohtani was tagged out and the Angels’ threat was successfully eliminated. The rest of the inning was completed without incident, and the Athletics came up to try their hand at things.
Needless to say, it went decisively better than the Angels’ attempt. Hansel Robles started the inning by hitting Ramon Laureano with a pitch - a sign of things to come. After gaining a brief respite by striking out Matt Chapman, Robles allowed both runners to advance on a wild pitch and followed that up by throwing three more balls to load the bases. Hoby Milner then took the mound to try and get out of the mess, but unfortunately for him, his first pitch was not a very good one. In a moment of pure baseball poeticism, the same Matt Olson who saved the game in the previous half-inning ended it with a towering walk-off grand slam. 4 runs, 1 hit, 0 errors.
Objectively, it was an amazing ending to a game that was already great. The added runners on second worked exactly as they were supposed to, adding drama, excitement, and additional strategy into the game. It also helped that neither team opted to go for the sacrifice bunt, which nearly everyone expected them to do. The grand slam, of course, was just icing on the cake.
With that being said, is this game going to change public opinion regarding the rule? Likely not right away, but it was certainly a great first impression. I’m still not enamored with the rule myself, but even I had to admit that seeing the rule in practice was much better than how I imagined it in theory.
Ultimately, I think the success or failure of this rule is going to be rooted in how managers choose to treat the situation and the kinds of strategies we see being used. If extra innings routinely become decided by sac bunts and sac flies, I could easily see the resentment towards this rule building over the course of the year. But if teams are consistently trying to score multiple runs in these innings instead of playing it safe, this rule could potentially bring about some of the most exciting baseball we have seen in years. For the sake of the fans, let’s hope that more teams take the Angels’ and Athletics’ examples in extra innings.