K E2

K E2, that was how it was ruled. Going back to last year, Boston in New York, for game 6 of the ALCS, the umpires two different times got together, and made the correct call. That was not the case last night.

The way I see it is probably the way Mike Scioscia saw it. And that being that A.J. Pierzynski was rung out by the home plate umpire, therefore he was out. And if the ball does hit the dirt, or touch the dirt, the catcher always makes the tag immediately after, and if need be, throw to first. Josh Paul knew he caught it, hence the routine of heading to the dugout. The umpires getting together obviously agreed it was not clearly caught. A.J. Pierzynski and the White Sox caught a break. So bottom line is the game ends with a controversial call that was wrong. Luckily it was not a game six or seven. Possibly it will give the Angels an extra boost to play better, and get more runs on the board.

Another thing I think of, is when catchers are involved in a play at the plate, they usually have respect for eachother, and won't slam into, or make a violent play. This sort of surprised me that A.J. Pierzynski ran after Paul caught it. In the postgame press conference, he said he ran when he didn't hear the umpire call him out, and he realised he wasn't tagged, that being why he started walking away before running to first. He also said something similar happened in San Francisco last year, he was catching, and the pitcher tried to bunt, didn't get it down, ran, and was called safe. From what I understood, the pitcher started walking towards the dugout (visiting dugout on the first base side), then ran to first. Anyway, view the postgame press conference at the ALCS video page.