The Milwaukee Brewers and Colorado Rockies started a three game series on Friday night. At American Family Field, the home team won a high scoring affair by a score of 10-6. This wild game saw the Brew Crew almost squander a six run lead, but three insurance runs in the eighth inning provided them with some breathing room.
In this contest, one way that Milwaukee manufactured a run was by a balk. Catcher William Contreras was on third base during the fifth inning, when first base umpire Paul Clemons issued a balk on Rockies pitcher Jimmy Herget. Following the call, there was a heated exchange between the two.
Rockies pitcher Jimmy Herget and umpire Paul Clemons had a heated exchange after a balk
In the fifth inning, Brewers catcher William Contreras was the lone base runner on the third base. There was one out in the inning, and on the first pitch to Isaac Collins Rockies pitcher Jimmy Herget elected to pitch out of the windup instead of the stretch. He was immediately called for a balk and Herget plus umpire Paul Clemons shared a very heated exchange.
Why was Jimmy Herget called for a balk that led to a Brewers run?
Brewers play-by-play announcer Brian Anderson talked in detail about this balk call. When watching live, it didn’t appear that Herget did anything worthy to warrant a balk, rather what Herget did wrong is he did not declare that he was going to be pitching from the windup. Umpire Paul Clemons made this very clear as his lips read, “You didn’t declare, what do you want me to do?” during his exchange with Herget.
Per Brian Anderson, a rule is in place to protect base runners that pitchers have to declare that they are pitching out of the windup when situations with runners on base arise. This is important for base runners to know because once a pitcher starts his windup, he cannot throw over/attempt a pick off. If the pitcher was working out of the stretch, that would not be the case.
Anytime a balk is called, base runners advance 90 feet. In this particular case, Milwaukee had a runner on third base, so the balk led to the Brewers scoring an additional run.
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