We’re still a few days away from Opening Day, so baseball teams aren’t all quite ready to play competitive games. Either that or the Oakland Athletics struggle with math.
A spring training game at RingCentral Coliseum between the A’s and Giants was briefly paused in the sixth inning because the A’s almost got away with ending a half inning on the second out.
The inning went like this: David Villar struck out for the first out. Joc Pederson walked. And then, Luis Matos grounded into a fielder’s choice. It should have been an inning-ending double play, but Tony Kemp caught the ball at second and jogged off the field as if the inning was over.
New MLB Pace of Play Rule:
Two Outs per half Inning. 😂 pic.twitter.com/V1GBMJctw7
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) March 26, 2023
Initially, everyone seemed to buy Kemp’s confidence in forgetting the outs. The A’s ran off the field. The umpires were ready to turn the inning over. It wasn’t until Pederson and Gabe Kapler spoke up about that being the second out.
The Giants and A's had to reset after everyone walked off the field after getting just two outs 😂
🎥: @NBCSGiants pic.twitter.com/WVI1BvamLo
— Sporting News MLB (@sn_mlb) March 26, 2023
The umpires had a discussion and ultimately determined that, yes, the A’s still needed to get one more out.
Either this was an early sign of a long season to come for the A’s … or maybe we’re all ready for spring training to be over. If Kemp was ever going to forget the outs, at least it happened in an exhibition game.
No harm, just laughs.