Umpire Interference causes Trevor Bauer and Francisco Lindor to miss double play opportunity in 7th inning of 2018 Game 3 Houston vs Cleveland Playoff Game.

SportsCam Detective feels so alone sometimes. Apparently nobody else in the world noticed that the second base umpire ran in front of the play at second base and obstructed both Trevor Bauer's and Francisco Lindor's view of EVERYTHING during the most important play of the 3rd game of the 2018 playoffs between the Houston Astros and Cleveland Indians. 

If the Umpire had not run through the middle of the infield during the play to get a better vantage point this would have been an inning ending double play in the top of the seventh inning, game three of the 2018 Houston vs Cleveland playoff series, the score remaining tied 2 to 2. Trevor Bauer would have come out for the eighth inning have pitched very effectively. Home field advantage would have been Cleveland's. Instead, Bauer was replaced the Houston just pummeled what was known to be a questionable back end of the bullpen, something that Francona knew and was trying to avoid.

This one Umpire Interference play that was never even noticed by Dennis Eckersley, but it entirely changed the narrative of the series between Houston and Cleveland. Instead of possibly being down 2 games to 1 with Carlos Carrasco set to pitch game four, and Cleveland having had the lead for most of games 2 and 3, this missed Umpire's Interference call changed the Narrative to Houston was the superior team as they racked up 10 more runs from the 7th inning through the ninth inning. This one play completely changed the dynamic of the playoff series, and it was never even mentioned by Eckersley.

Trevor Bauer is already set to throw the ball to second for an inning ending double play, but to who? He can't lead either infielder because the Umpire is blocking his view and the path of where Bauer should be throwing the ball.

Yep, in the middle of the most important play of the game for Cleveland, the Umpire has decided to get a better vantage point of the play even as his own wrongful actions change the destiny of the play.

The Umpire has literally now COMPLETELY blocked second base from Bauer's view. Bauer had started his arm motion to throw to second. If Bauer stops, the play is dead all around, so he continues his arm motion to second base hoping to correctly anticipate where Lindor will be.

First the second base Umpire blocked the view of second base from Bauer, now he is blocking the flight path of the ball in terms of where the throw would need to go so that Lindor can take the throw and in one motion tag second base and then throw to first base for an inning ending double play and game saving play.

The Umpire is still trying to scramble to his new vantage point even though the damage has already been done.

It just gets worse and worser and worstest and every other wrongful grammatical word one can think of. First the Umpire blocked Bauer's view of second base, then he blocked the path of the ball to where Bauer needed to throw the ball so he could lead Lindor to the bag, now the Umpire is actually blocking the line of sight for BOTH Bauer and Lindor so neither player see each other.

Whew, the Umpire is FINALLY out of the line of sight of Bauer and Lindor, um, except Bauer has already thrown the ball and the ball is already halfway to the wrong side of second base. Bauer threw the ball before he could see Lindor because he had no choice and he clearly threw it to the right of the Umpire. Unfortunately in this situation the pitcher should be throwing to gracefully lead the infielder, not throwing so far to the right of second base because he literally threw the ball where they ain't. Both Bauer and Lindor clearly acted in a tentative manner specifically because of the Umpire's bad decision to cross in front of the play, Bauer throwing too far to his right and Lindor moving too slowly to get to the ball quickly enough.

Lindor's judgement was questioned because he did not try and tag the baserunner out when the reality was he was forced to make his decisions with incomplete visual information. Remember ballplayers are taking in data and determining their course of action a second or more ahead of time. The Umpire crossing the road to get to the other side of the infield cost both Bauer and Lindor dearly.

The 1/2 second delay by the hustling to do his job Umpire caused Bauer to not both not see where he should be throwing while also causing a delay in the trajectory and accuracy of the throw.

Why didn't Lindor instinctually know to tag the runner at second and at least get one out? Because once a ballplayer has his lines of sight taken away, they basically lose their ability to foreshadow the best possible plan of action. Lindor had to lunge for the throw at the last second to get to the ball. 

I get that the Umpire messed up. I am not upset with TBS announcer Dennis Eckersley for  missing what I saw when the play first happened. What I question is why can't there be a back up "guru" somewhere out there who can call in their observation and save the day from the point of view of giving Eckersley the corrected analysis.

Sportscam Detective noticed Mr. Eckersley proceeded to comment about Bauer not being prepared to defend his position and that Mr. Lindor did not make the correct decision to tag the baserunner before the runner reached second base. Basically Mr. Eckersley impugned the abilities of both Mr. Bauer and Mr. Lindor when it was Eckersley who erred by not noticing the scampering, interfering umpire.

The narrative that the third game was lost because of an umpire over zealously trying to do their job is a superior and more accurate storyline versus stating that two All Star Indians players totally messed up a play.

I am suggesting to MLB to have some outside advisers available who can call in during a game and have the observations quickly evaluated. Even if the correction is made in the next inning, lets at least get the dissection of the play correct for history's sake. Yes, Sportscam Detective is available for such duties.

SportsCam Detective would like to share certain sports moments that sometimes go unnoticed if it can correct an inaccurate narrative before hostile comments begin about the players from fans who are being wrongly informed about the play by play.

These types of mistake scenarios exist all around us and people who come and help are called fixers. A good fixer uses the truth to explain what went wrong and to elevate the discussion back to the level that the fans and the "play by play" people are capable of producing.

But Houston won going away so it didn't really matter, no? 

No, the score would have been 2-2 going into the bottom of the seventh inning and Bauer, who was pitching fine, could have gone another inning or two. Houston was barely making contact and to their credit, were lunging after Bauer's pitches and hitting balls into the ground and creating infield hits. Not exactly dominant hitting. Bauer basically threw back to back double play balls and all he had to show for it was one out and two runners safe, and an exit from a game he had been pitching decently.

But Houston was the better team, no? 

Yes, and that's just an another reason to not help them win, no? But worst still, to not notice an Umpire's unfortunate decision to run across the infield at the precisely wrong moment and then blame the umpire's wrong decision on two All Star caliber players, is just not right. 

Wait till betting is legalized and suddenly these ballplayers have a million angry betting "fans" blaming them for a bad outcome play that was not even their fault to begin with.