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Controversial play at plate helps Rays beat Yankees

 
Rays catcher Ryan Hanigan hangs on to leftfielder Matt Joyce’s throw and tags out  Stephen Drew at home in the fifth inning, preventing the Yankees from tying the score.
Rays catcher Ryan Hanigan hangs on to leftfielder Matt Joyce’s throw and tags out Stephen Drew at home in the fifth inning, preventing the Yankees from tying the score.
Published Sept. 10, 2014

NEW YORK — Rays manager Joe Maddon had been a vocal critic of the catcher collision rule implemented this season, saying before Tuesday's game that a new clarification made official hours earlier didn't seem to make much difference.

But he had a different take after the Rays escaped with a 4-3 victory over the Yankees, in large part due to a ruling on that play going in their favor when it might have gone against them a day earlier.

"It's very possible, very possible," Maddon said. "I've spoken strongly about it before. I don't like the rule at all. I think it's a bad rule. Fortunately it worked in our favor tonight that a good baseball play was permitted. … It would have been a travesty had it been overturned.''

What had been a 4-0 Rays lead, built by James Loney and Co., was slipping away in the fifth inning as Chris Archer, who had retired the first nine Yankees, was going through another of those rough spots that seem to plague him.

Archer hit the first batter then allowed three consecutive hits, the two runs scoring on Chris Young's single making it 4-1.

With the tying run on second and none out, Jacoby Ellsbury rapped a fourth straight single, but leftfielder Matt Joyce threw home, catcher Ryan Hanigan grabbing the ball in front of the plate and staying there, providing no lane as he tagged out Stephen Drew.

Much of the confusion about the new rule has involved where the catcher is allowed to be in terms of blocking the plate. The clarification was designed to make it clear that if the catcher has the ball in plenty of time, he can be in front of the plate, as Hanigan was.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi asked for a review, and as the umpires in the replay room were deciding, Archer, forgetting about the latest change, assumed the call would be overturned and the score tied. Joyce did, too.

But the out call stood, which angered Girardi then — "He had no place to go" — and more so after the game when he said he now would encourage his runners to knock over the catcher, saying the clarification made it worse.

"I think on Sunday, he would have been safe," Girardi said.

Archer agreed, saying the recent change "helped out" in this case: "We may still be playing that game if that rule isn't in effect.''

That play wasn't the whole story, not even that inning. Derek Jeter then lined a ball right at second baseman Ben Zobrist, who doubled Young off second.

The Rays, failing to add on after getting the leadoff man on in four straight innings, got another break in the seventh. Archer left after allowing a one-out infield single off his foot to Ichiro Suzuki. With Grant Balfour pitching, Suzuki, who had already stolen second, broke for third as Drew lined a ball to right, and Wil Myers threw to second for the double play.

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Archer had struggled mightily in his previous two starts, allowing 14 runs (13 earned) and 20 hits over 10 innings, raising the question if he was fatigued at the end of his first full major-league season, which he said he wasn't.

Maddon showed faith in letting Archer work through the fifth, and Archer showed something in return, improving to 5-0, 1.93 against the Yankees in doing so. "I'm continuing to grow,'' he said, "and I think tonight was a good growth moment for me."