‘Rare’ obstruction ruling leaves Twins beffudled, upset after tough loss to Brewers

MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Twins were left confused and disappointed Friday night as a potentially game-changing web gem instantly morphed into an unfortunate and rarely called overturn that cost them the game.

Correctly called by the umpiring crew at the top of the eighth inning, Major League Baseball rule 6.01(h)(2) regarding obstruction on the bases was enforced, and the Milwaukee Brewers rode it to a 3-2 victory over the Twins in front of an announced crowd of 24,309 at Target Field.

After believing they had cut the tying run at third base on a brilliant exchange between Brooks Lee and Royce Lewis, Milwaukee’s Jackson Chourio was awarded home plate after umpires ruled Lewis obstructed the runner’s path back to the base.

Derek Shelton received his third ejection of the season in the aftermath, and Brewers cleanup man Jake Bauers followed by doubling in the go-ahead run off rookie reliever Andrew Morris, leaving the Twins stunned.

“It was pretty ridiculous,” said Twins starting pitcher Joe Ryan, who received a no-decision after allowing a run and striking out seven over six innings. “I was a little confused on the ruling because (Chourio) was tagged out before he even slid into the foot when he had space to. And then it doesn’t make sense to me because he’s going back to the base. He’s out. He was out before he touched the base and touched the foot. I don’t get how you score there. It doesn’t make sense.”

The rule is the result of a new point of emphasis that umpires employed before the 2024 season. Though few games are impacted by it, this one was in dramatic fashion.

Tasked to protect a one-run lead, Morris yielded consecutive singles to Chourio and Brice Turang to start the eighth inning, leaving runners on the corners. After Turang stole second base, the Twins had drawn in their infield. William Contreras hit a grounder directly to Lee, who saw Chourio leaning too far off third base and fired quickly to Lewis for an apparent out, well ahead of the runner sliding into the defender’s leg.

Though third-base ump — and crew chief — Jordan Baker signaled an out, he also quickly called over the other umpires to discuss the play. After a quick conference, obstruction was ruled, and Chourio, who retreated to third base on the play, was awarded home with the tying run.

The rule states: “If a play is being made on the obstructed runner, or if the batter-runner is obstructed before he touches first base, the ball is dead and all runners shall advance, without liability to be put out, to the bases they would have reached, in the umpire’s judgment, if there had been no obstruction. The obstructed runner shall be awarded at least one base beyond the base he had last legally touched before the obstruction. Any preceding runners, forced to advance by the award of bases as the penalty for obstruction, shall advance without liability to be put out.”

“It’s very rare,” Lewis said. “That won’t happen again, probably, this year. … Just a freak play that unfortunately didn’t go our way.”

Shelton immediately erupted after the overturn. Knowing the play couldn’t be reviewed by video because it occurred in front of the base, Shelton knew he didn’t have a winning argument. He let the umpiring crew have it anyway and was quickly ejected.

“It’s a reactionary play for Royce, where he’s just trying to get over there,” Shelton said. “And the fact that Chourio slides into his foot, with the entire rest of the base there, and he’s standing behind him, I think it’s a challenging call. If you’re going to call it, I think you have to call it immediately. You don’t get together and ask three other umpires that aren’t close to it. So, we had an out call there. … In defense of Jordan Baker, he’s standing behind him, and he can’t see that. That’s why it should be a reviewable play, in my opinion.”

In his opinion, Lee made a risky play by throwing behind Chourio. Lee was pleased with the execution, noting Chourio was “out by a decent bit.” But once the umpires began to confer, Lee suspected the Twins could be in trouble.

“It sucks, but I guess it’s an umpire’s discretion,” Lee said. “There’s nothing we can really do about it. It felt like Royce was backpedaling a little bit to get to the base. I felt like there’s nothing else he could do. Would have been great if they called him out. … It is what it is.”

What it did was lead to a trying loss for a Twins team trying to grab hold of recently gained momentum. Entering Friday, the Twins had won four of their previous six games, notching their first two series victories since mid-April.

Even after Bauers doubled in the go-ahead run, Morris and Anthony Banda held the score at 3-2, recording three outs without allowing either runner in scoring position to advance.

The Twins, who’d taken the lead in the seventh inning on a Lewis RBI single, put two men on with one out in the eighth inning. Then, Josh Bell grounded into a double play. Minnesota never recovered.

“We ran a great play,” Lewis said. “It happened so fast. It was one of those — it’s like, clearly I didn’t have intent to block the bag. I didn’t even know where I was. I was just looking to catch the ball from Brooks and make a play, and it was an unfortunate call.”