Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy lost his cool on Friday night against the Tampa Bay Rays. For the second time in a few days, he found himself looking for answers from umpires regarding their ruling of obstruction. This time, it directly led to the Rays scoring a run that had a huge impact on the game’s outcome.
The Milwaukee Brewers have been burned by two obstruction calls recently
On the most recent home stand, Brewers first baseman Rhys Hoskins was ruled to have obstructed a base runners path back to the base on a back pick attempt. Murphy argued that call, but not to the point of an ejection.
Against Tampa Bay, Murphy brought in Nick Mears, who was inheriting runners on the corners and one out. Mears got a strikeout right away, but during his second batter faced the runner on first base intentionally got caught in a run down.
Second baseman Brice Turang ran the runner back towards first and then fired the baseball across the diamond to third where umpire James Hoye initially called the runner out on the tag, but then changed it to obstruction on Caleb Durbin. As a result of Hoye’s call, Christopher Morel was able to advance home and scored a go-ahead run.
Murphy got quite heated when he came out for an explanation. His lips read, “It’s got to be egregious,” as he tried to get his point across. Before leaving the contest via an ejection, Murphy chucked his hat across the field, which drew quite a reaction from the crowd.
You could read Pat Murphy’s lips before he was tossed: “It’s got to be egregious.”
It’s the same argument he made when Rhys Hoskins was called for obstruction on the homestand. I believe this is the part of the rule Murphy is citing. pic.twitter.com/a4MKCZ1lL5
— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) May 10, 2025
Pat Murphy and Christopher Morel comment on the umpire’s obstruction call
In the aftermath, Murphy revealed that his argument was that Morel had a clear path back to third base, meaning Durbin wasn’t egregiously preventing him from getting back. Murphy acknowledged that Durbin was positioned in front of the base, but argued that it had no impact on the play, so why make the call.
From the Rays side, Morel commented on the obstruction call as well. Through an interpreter, he told MLB.com “I was trying to get home, and I couldn’t get a good jump. So I had to go back, and that’s pretty much it. I tried to get back. His leg was in front of the base, and I tried to put my hand underneath. The umpire saw that.”
Morel’s admission that he purposely aimed for Durbin’s leg shows how the subjective nature of obstruction calls. Unfortunately, this call did not go the Brewers way, and in a tightly contested game it had a huge impact on the games outcome.
Following this controversial play in the sixth inning, the Brewers went on to tie the game in the eighth, but then gave the lead right back in the bottom of the same inning as the eventual winning run scored on a bases loaded walk.
This Brewers loss dropped them back under .500 by a game. They will take on the Rays again on Saturday, with the first pitch scheduled for 3:10 PM CT.
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