The San Diego Padres got lucky against the Seattle Mariners on Saturday night and no one in the stadium even knew it.
Cameron Maybin jogged to first base after a called walk. Like everyone else in the ballpark, he saw a full count on the scoreboard and headed to first base when Seattle’s Doug Fister threw a ball.
Problem was, Maybin was trotting down to first after just three balls, and no one picked up on the scorekeeper’s mistake.
“I thought it was a full count, like everybody else in the park. Turned out to be a big play,” Maybin said. “It was a crazy play. I’ve never been a part of something like that. It worked out in our advantage, so we’ll take it.”
Maybin walked after just three balls were thrown by Fister and came around to score the only run of the game on Alberto Gonzalez’s single, sending the San Diego Padres past the Seattle Mariners 1-0 on Saturday night.
With one out in the fifth, Maybin walked when a pitch was called high by home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi. A video review of the at-bat by official scorer Dan Peterson confirmed the count should have been 3-2 when Maybin walked.
No argument was made by anyone on the field and the stadium scoreboard showed a three-ball count before Fister (3-9) delivered the pitch.
After the game, the umpiring crew huddled, reviewed the tape and agreed Maybin should not have walked. Crew chief Tom Hallion said Cuzzi’s hand indicator had the count at 2-2, but he noted the stadium scoreboard read 3-2 before Fister’s pitch missed high.
“My plate umpire thought his count was wrong. The scoreboard had 3-2 and he thought he was wrong because when Maybin took off for first, nobody said anything,” Hallion said. “The catcher didn’t react, the dugout didn’t react so he thought he had the wrong count.
“Do we feel bad? Absolutely. We count the pitches and it was just one of those things that gets away with you with the scoreboard having the 3-2 count up there and then nothing being said by anybody, he thought he had the wrong count.”
The missed count became an issue when Maybin scored on Gonzalez’s hard one-hopper that skipped off shortstop Brendan Ryan’s glove and into left field, and Seattle failed to mount any sort of offence against spot starter Cory Luebke.
Elsewhere in interleague play it was: Philadelphia 5 Toronto 3; San Francisco 15 Detroit 3; N.Y. Yankees 5 N.Y. Mets 2; Chicago White Sox 1 Chicago Cubs 0; Milwaukee 8 Minnesota 7; L.A. Angels 7 Dodgers 1; Arizona 4 Oakland 2; Colorado 9 Kansas City 6; Tampa Bay 5 St. Louis 1; Florida 9 Texas 5; Boston 10 Houston 4; Atlanta 5 Baltimore 4 and Cleveland 3 Cincinnati 1. In the National League, Pittsburgh beat Washington 5-3 in the first half of a double-header, but the Nationals earned the split with a 4-3 win in the evening.
At Seattle, Luebke (2-2) allowed two hits in six innings, and Chad Qualls, Mike Adams and Heath Bell each got three outs to complete the two-hitter. Bell earned his 24th save in 25 chances.
But all the attention was on Maybin’s strange at-bat and how the mistake with the count went unnoticed on the field.
Maybin fell behind 0-2, then fouled off a pitch before Fister missed to make the count 1-2. Maybin fouled off another before Fister missed with a curveball in the dirt. The count both in the stadium and on the television broadcast showed 3-2 and the next pitch missed high with Maybin walking to first base and no one making an argument.
“You have an at-bat full of pitches, you see pitches, foul off a couple,” Maybin said. “Sometimes you get lost so you look up there – that’s what those big numbers that say ball, strike are there for. So I looked up there and saw three balls, two strikes so on that last pitch I was assuming that was, ‘take your base.'”
Hallion said sometimes when the count gets lost in a glut of pitches, the home plate umpire will double check with the catcher where the count should be.
“It happens a lot of times in the game you look down and it says ‘2-2’ and a lot of times what you’ll do is ‘Josh, what do you got?’ just trying to make sure you’re not wrong or something is wrong,” Hallion said. “Unfortunately we didn’t do this in this case and that’s where we stand with it. It’s one of those things that you wish didn’t happen.”
Maybin moved to second on Anthony Rizzo’s groundout and raced home when Gonzalez’s smash got into left field.
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Phillies 5 Blue Jays 3
At Toronto, Roy Halladay gave up eight hits to his former team to win his sixth straight decision, helping the Philadelphia beat Toronto. Halladay (11-3), who took the mound in the bottom of the first to a standing ovation from the crowd of 44,078, spent the first 12 years of his career with the Blue Jays before being traded to Philadelphia in December 2009.
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Giants 15 Tigers 3
At Detroit, Pablo Sandoval and Brandon Crawford homered in a five-run first inning and Miguel Tejada had a grand slam in a five-run third after a long rain delay. The game was delayed by a thunderstorm in the third inning for two hours 36 minutes and it ended after midnight.
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Yankees 5 Mets 2
At New York, Bartolo Colon pitched six shutout innings in his return from the disabled list and Eduardo Nunez had another big game at the plate, helping the Yankees earn their season-best seventh consecutive victory.
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White Sox 1 Cubs 0
At Chicago, Phil Humber, backed by strong defence, pitched shutout ball for seven innings and Juan Pierre singled in the only run, lifting the White Sox to victory.
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Brewers 8 Twins 7
At Minneapolis, pinch-hitter George Kottaras capped a four-run ninth inning with a go-ahead RBI single that sent Milwaukee to the unlikely victory.
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Angels 7 Dodgers 1
At Anaheim, Calif., Jered Weaver got a measure of payback against Clayton Kershaw six days after a tough-luck loss in their previous matchup and Vernon Wells homered for the Angels.
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Diamondbacks 4 Athletics 2
At Oakland, Calif., Chris Young had three hits and four RBIs, including a two-run homer while Joe Saunders (5-7) pitched seven-plus innings for Arizona, yielding two runs and eight hits while improving to 12-4 with a 3.44 earned-run average in 18 career starts against Oakland.
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Rockies 9 Royals 6
At Denver, Mark Ellis had three doubles in his second game with the Colorado Rockies, who also got a home run from Troy Tulowitzki. Ellis, Todd Helton and Tulowitzki each drove in two runs for Colorado, which finished with a season-high nine extra-base hits.
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Rays 5 Cardinals 1
At St. Petersburg, Fla., Casey Kotchman hit a three-run double and scored on Justin Ruggiano’s homer during a five-run sixth inning, leading Tampa Bay to the victory.
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Marlins 9 Rangers 5
At Arlington, Texas, Hanley Ramirez hit a grand slam and solo shot for a career high-tying five RBIs, helping the Marlins overcome Josh Hamilton’s two homers.
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Red Sox 10 Astros 4
At Houston, Darnell McDonald hit a three-run homer, pinch-hitter Yamaico Navarro went deep for the first time and Boston picked up its third consecutive victory.
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Braves 5 Orioles 4
At Atlanta, David Ross hit his second career grand slam and Atlanta extended its winning streak to five.
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Indians 3 Reds 1
At Cincinnati, Michael Brantley hit a three-run homer and Frank Herrmann took over after Indians starter Fausto Carmona took a tumble, pitching three scoreless innings Saturday for his first big league win.
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Pirates 5 Nationals 3 (Game 1)
At Washington, D.C., Garrett Jones and Andrew McCutchen hit back-to-back homers in the eighth, and the Pirates beat the Nationals in the opening game of their first doubleheader in the nation’s capital since the 19th Century.
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Nationals 4 Pirates 3 (Game 2)
At Washington, D.C., Ivan Rodriguez drove in the go-ahead run as a pinch-hitter in the eighth, and the Washington Nationals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-3 to earn a doubleheader split.
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