When the Diablos Rojos del Mexico and Piratas de Campeche went to extra innings on Saturday night in the third game of their series, each team started the extra frame with a runner on second base.
The extra inning of the game, which the Piratas won 15-14 after ghost runner Andrew Young advanced to third when leadoff man Felix Perez grounded out to first and scored on Terrin Vavra’s single, shouldn’t have had ghost runners on second, though, because the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol doesn’t use that rule.
Now, the league has announced that the umpiring crew, which had Lucio Cebreros at home plate, Marco Garibay at first base, crew chief Jair Fernandez at second base, and Gustavo Pena at third, will be fined for incorrectly applying the rule.
“This rule is not part of the current provisions for the LMB season, so it was a serious error by the quartet of umpires led by the group leader, Jair Fernández,” the league said in a press release issued in Spanish on Sunday. “It is important to emphasize that the Mexican Baseball League’s umpiring crew always strives to work under high standards of professionalism and preparation; however, in this particular case, we acknowledge the failure of the quartet of umpires.”
The umpiring crew that worked the game will be fined, and the league has instructed the Director of Umpires, Luis Alberto Ramirez, to immediately reinforce training and review of criteria regarding special rules and field conditions in order to prevent the error from happening again.
Photo: The Piratas de Campeche scored the winning run in the 10th inning of their third game against the Diablos Rojos – using a ghost runner who never should have been on base. (Photo courtesy of the Diablos Rojos del Mexico)
