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Game 6 of the World Series ended in controversy, sparking accusations from fans that the competition is being intentionally manipulated to benefit the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Dodgers had a 3-1 lead against the Toronto Blue Jays during the bottom of the ninth inning. A win for Toronto would have marked their first championship victory in 32 years.
Drama unfolded when Toronto’s catcher, Alejandro Kirk, was struck by a pitch at the start of the inning. He was subsequently substituted with Myles Straw as a pinch runner. Next up was Blue Jays outfielder Addison Barger, stepping up to the plate.
With the count at 2-2, Barger smashed a fastball into left-center field. The seemingly improbable hit landed precisely between the padding of the outfield wall and the warning track.
In response, Dodgers center fielder Justin Dean quickly raised his hands, signaling to the umpires to declare the ball as ‘lodged.’
All the while, Straw rounded for home to bring the score to 3-2 as Barger went to third base.
A late-game hit from Addison Barger was the subject of controversy on social media
Barger’s ball was wedged under the outfield wall padding, with outfielder Justin Dean immediately putting his hands up for the umpires to call a ‘lodged ball’ ground-rule double
Rojas stared at the infield and watched as Straw raced for home and did not manage to get the ball free from under the wall until well after the base runner had scored.
Amid the bedlam at the Rogers Centre, left field umpire John Tumpane held up two fingers – indicating a ground-rule double.
According to the MLB rulebook in section 5.05 (a) (7), a ball is considered ‘lodged’ if it ‘becomes stuck in the fence, scoreboard, shrubbery, vines, or padding in such a way that it cannot be easily retrieved.’ By that rule, if a ball is ‘lodged’ it is considered a ground-rule double – with all runners advancing two bases.
However, as angry baseball fans noted, Rojas didn’t seem to be in any hurry to try and make a play on the ball to dislodge it from the wall – immediately holding his hands up and staring for some time before eventually getting it free from the padding.
After the incident, many took to Twitter to voice their anger and claimed that the fix was in. One fan appeared to have used an AI chatbot to pull up the rules and posted it to the site, saying, ‘Based on the rulebook, the player has to try and grab the ball before it’s declared a dead ball. Ball wasn’t entirely wedged and was easily grabable. Dodgers cheated.’
‘Dodgers just got bailed out lmao this isn’t a dead ball . Ball wasn’t even that stuck,’ another fan said.
One post said, ‘If the Dodgers win this game, I am 100% convinced the owners rigged this World Series to get a salary cap. That is an insane f***ing call.’
‘You can’t tell me this s**t ain’t rigged for the Dodgers to win right??’ another fan wondered. ‘Ball being “stuck” when you can literally grab it, to a base running error to cause a Game 7? Commissioner setting this up for a “Epic Comeback Win for the Dodgers” headlines. F**ing pathetic #WorldSeries.’
Two batters later, Barger was tossed out at second on a double play to end the game
While these were just some of many angry fans commenting about the rule, many more pointed out that in that situation it is almost always called a lodged ball.
The game ended two batters later. Toronto third baseman Ernie Clement swung and popped out at the very first pitch he saw from LA’s Tyler Glasnow, who was in line to start tomorrow night.
With one out, up stepped Andres Gimenez – who was 0-for-4 on Friday night and has batted 3-for-23 (.130) this World Series.
On a 1-0 pitch, Gimenez swung and flared the ball into shallow left field. Anticipating the drop of the ball, Barger began running without tagging second base.
Instead, outfielder Enrique ‘Kiké’ Hernandez made the catch and then fired the ball over to Betts for the force out to end the game on a bang-bang play.
It forces a winner-take-all Game 7 of the World Series to be played in Toronto on Saturday night.