The Baltimore Orioles are one of the worst teams in baseball, which can lead to some pretty ridiculous and ugly on-field play. That was definitely the case Friday night, when one particular play ignited some controversy with the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Orioles led the Blue Jays 3-1 in the top of the sixth inning Friday, with Toronto’s Lourdes Gurriel at second after a leadoff double. When Randal Grichuk hit a ground ball to second, Orioles second baseman Jahmai Jones tried to throw Gurriel out at third. The throw was wild, however, and bounced toward Toronto’s dugout.
Gurriel rounded third to score, but he was met by a surprise: Orioles pitcher Fernando Abad, apparently going to try to back up the third baseman after the error, absolutely crushed Gurriel midway between third and home.
Abad did have reason to be heading over toward the dugout to position himself to back up the throw. However, it certainly appeared that he saw Gurriel coming and didn’t really try to avoid the collision or get out of the way.
Gurriel was able to get up and score, and he remained in the game. The Blue Jays went on to tie the game later in the inning, and the situation didn’t escalate any further.
Collisions on the basepaths are not entirely unusual in the game and are often clearly unintentional. This one just looked a little weird on Abad’s part.
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