It's never a good sign when a recap of a game starts by quoting the Major League Baseball rulebook.
Here's the Rule 6.01(a) Penalty for Interference Comment:
A runner who is adjudged to have hindered a fielder who is attempting to make a play on a batted ball is out whether it was intentional or not.
Andrew Vaughn was on the wrong end of this call at the worst possible time -- not just because it was the last out of the game, but because it cut short an impressive ninth-inning rally that gave the White Sox a chance of tying the game.
The question is whether Vaughn was on the wrong end of a wrong call. By the letter of the rule, Vaughn did "hinder" Gunnar Henderson on Andrew Benintendi's pop-up with runners on first and second with nobody out, because Henderson clipped Vaughn as they both headed to where they needed to go -- Vaughn back to second, and Henderson toward the infield grass, and Henderson was briefly affected.
The common-sense interpretation of "hinder" wouldn't be nearly as stringent, because had the umpiring crew not flagged Vaughn for the contact, nobody would have thought anything of it. It was an infield fly, so the ball wasn't consequential, but even accounting for the fact that it's still a live play, Henderson had plenty of time to catch it, so was he "hindered?" The third-party observer would probably think Vaughn would have to have unsuccessfully attempted a leg whip of Henderson in order to trigger interference under those circumstances.
But from the pool report with the umpires after the game, Vaughn was not afforded any such generosity of spirity.
Crew chief Adrian Johnson said, "The ball was hit and infield fly was ruled on the play. [Third base umpire] Junior [Valentine] came in with interference on Andrew Vaughn, the runner on second base. Actually the shortstop made contact with him, so with the interference, that's an out. And you still have the infield fly, and that's an out also."
And when asked if the outcome of the play affected the judgment, Valentine simply said, "If you see the interference, you call it."
And that's how a suddenly thrilling ballgame suddenly ended.
The White Sox spent most of the evening hindered by their own power-deprived offense. They saw plenty of pitches and drew plenty of walks, but Tommy Pham's leadoff double in the seventh inning was the only extra-base hit, while the Orioles hit a pair of fourth-inning homers off Mike Clevinger -- and tacked on four stolen bases as well -- to build an 8-2 lead through eight.
But Jonathan Heasley, up from the minors to close out a game with a six-run lead, started his second inning of work with control issues. He walked Corey Julks and Danny Mendick to turn over the lineup, and Pham shot a single through the middle to make it 8-3. Nicky Lopez punched a single through the left side to load the bases, and while Yennier Cano took over in an attempt to stabilize the situation, he instead plunked Andrew Vaughn and gave up a two-run single to Gavin Sheets to make it an 8-6 game with still nobody out.
Zach DeLoach came off the bench to pinch-hit for Paul DeJong with hopes of winning the game with his first career hit, but struck out. Craig Kimbrel then entered to face Benintendi, and that's when Kimbrel induced the fateful pop-up that became an unassisted double play due to the strict interpretation of "hindered."
Bullet points:
*Clevinger coasted through the first two innings, but ran into problems holding runners in the third, then started hanging breaking balls in the fourth. He gave up five runs over 4⅔ innings, and his ERA is 6.75.
*Jared Shuster, who entered the game with a 2.00 ERA over 18 innings with helpful long-relief work, had his first truly ugly outing, throwing just 27 of 49 pitches for stirkes while giving up three runs and eight baserunners over 2⅓ innings.
*The White Sox drew seven walks, were plunked by two pitches, and saw 171 pitches over 8⅔ innings. They did their best in terms of swing decisions.
*Benintendi had the only RBIs through eight innings, one on a bases-loaded walk, and another on a third-inning single.
*Lopez adjusted nicely to a comebacker deflected off Clevinger's glove to start a 1-4-6-3 double play that limited the damage to one run in the third.
