Nationals left confused by ruling on play at plate

The focus should have been on Adam Eaton, whose 11-pitch at-bat with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh Friday night might well have been his best of the season. After fouling off five straight pitches from Cy Young Award contender Hyun-Jin Ryu, the Nationals' scrappy No. 2 hitter lined a base hit over the shortstop's head, bringing the tying run home as a crowd of 37,491 roared with approval.

But the focus instead wound up on what happened at the end of the dramatic play during Friday's 4-2 loss to the Dodgers. Victor Robles scored easily from third on Eaton's hit, but Gerardo Parra was thrown out trying to score the go-ahead run, leading to a complaint from the Nationals that Dodgers catcher Russell Martin illegally blocked the plate.

Alex Verdugo's throw from shallow left field beat Parra to the plate. And Martin applied the tag before Parra touched the plate. Of that there's no debate.

The Nationals, though, argued Martin violated Major League Baseball's home plate collision rule, not providing Parra with a clear path to slide. In fact, Parra never did slide, instead unsuccessfully trying to tiptoe around Martin's tag.

"In that moment, I got frozen," Parra said. "Nothing. Maybe if I want to slide, slide to the left side. It's hard. You've got a second to make a decision."

After a review, replay officials in New York upheld the original call, leaving Parra out and leaving the Nationals confused about what else the runner was supposed to do in that situation.

"Honestly? Martin blocked the plate," manager Davey Martinez said. "(Parra) didn't know what to do. He was right in front of home plate, and the rule apparently states that if he would have slid, they might have called him safe. But he didn't know where to slide. (Martin) was in front of home plate."

MLB Rule 6.01(i)(2) states: "Unless the catcher is in possession of the ball, the catcher cannot block the pathway of the runner as he is attempting to score. If, in the judgment of the umpire, the catcher without possession of the ball blocks the pathway of the runner, the umpire shall call or signal the runner safe."

The rule further states that a catcher without possession of the ball is not in violation "if the runner could have avoided the collision with the catcher ... by sliding."

Martinez suggested that crew chief Brian O'Nora told him the call may have been overturned had Parra slid.

"We challenged, they came back and Brian gave me the explanation: If he would have slid, they probably would have overturned it," the manager said. "He would have been safe. But he didn't know that. How do you slide when a guy is blocking the plate?"

In reality, though, the replay officials ruled that Martin wasn't blocking the plate, that he still provided Parra with a path to slide in between his spread-out legs.

Here is the official explanation of the play from MLB: "After viewing all relevant angles, the Replay Official definitively determined that no violation of the Home Plate Collision Rule occurred. The catcher's initial setup was legal, and he moved in reaction to the trajectory of the throw. Additionally, the catcher is not at risk for violating OBR 6.01(i)(2) unless the runner slides. The call is confirmed, it is not a violation."

Parra's only hope, it appears, would have been to attempt to slide and beat the tag.

"The first one is my fault, because I want to slide," Parra said. "But when I saw him in the middle, I didn't know if I wanted to slide to this side or this side. That's (why) I stood up. That's my fault. I don't want to say anything about that. That's baseball. Sometimes that happens. That's over right now."