Breaking down the key, controversial call by the umpires in the Brewers’ 1-0 loss to the Rays

Another night, another controversy involving a call that helped sway the path of a game at American Family Field.

On Monday night, for the second straight day, the Milwaukee Brewers were on the short end of a contentious call during the later stages of a close game.

Less than 36 hours after Aaron Judge broke up a double play by deflecting a throw by raising his arm on a slide was deemed legal on the field, leading indirectly to seven two-out runs in a 15-5 victory for the New York Yankees, a play near home plate Monday had a key role in the Brewers losing, 1-0, to the Tampa Bay Rays.

This one involved a dropped third strike and backswing interference by Brewers first baseman Jake Bauers.

The Brewers appeared as though they were in business in the ninth when Sal Frelick doubled to left-center to open the bottom of the ninth against reliever Jason Adam. After William Contreras lined out to right, Willy Adames came all the way back from an 0-2 count to draw a walk.

Then Frelick and Adames pulled off a double steal, leaving the tying run just 90 feet away with one out.

Adam got ahead, 0-2, on Bauers. His third pitch was a ball down and in on a changeup, followed by a slider around the same spot that Bauers swung at and missed.

The ball scooted past catcher René Pinto, far enough to allow Frelick to score and Adames to advance to third.

But, almost immediately, home plate umpire Ryan Additon was already advancing toward the mound signaling dead ball, then calling Bauers out for hitting Pinto in the back of his helmet with his backswing and sending the runners back to their original bases.

That brought Brewers manager Pat Murphy out of the dugout for what was at first a conversation with Additon that quickly escalated. Additon ejected Murphy – the sixth ejection of Murphy’s managerial career and first with the Brewers – who then continued to voice his displeasure to crew chief Chris Guccione before eventually being led back to the dugout by associate manager Rickie Weeks.

"They said they had to call backswing interference,” said Murphy. “I'm not a rules expert, but the rule says that if, on the swing on the third strike, the backswing interferes with the catcher catching the ball, you can call interference.

“That backswing happened after the ball was already past him. So, in my opinion, that's a bad call. They made a mistake, and they changed the game. I'm not going to act like I know everything, but that's what it says in the rule book.

“I can read it to you.”

But Guccione explained to a pool reporter from the Journal Sentinel that a different rule — one specifically regarding backswing interference — was called.

“In this situation, it was swinging strike 3,” Guccione said from the umpire's room following the game. “The ball got away from the catcher, but on the batter’s backswing, hit the catcher in the helmet. At that point, once the play is over, the ball is then dead. Because in that case, the catcher still has an opportunity to make a play on the ball if the guy was stealing or if he had been there and gotten the guy out at the plate. So we leave the ball in play until everything is done. And then at that point, you have to enforce the backswing interference.

"So in this case, it was a third strike to Bauers and all runners go back to the original base at the time of the pitch. That’s the rule. In the official baseball rules, it’s 6.03a(3) and (4).”

That rule, as shown by Guccione to a pool reporter, reads:

“If a batter strikes at a ball and misses and swings so hard he carries the bat all the way around and, in the umpire’s judgment, unintentionally hits the catcher or the ball in back of him on the backswing, it shall be called a strike only (not interference). The ball will be dead, however, and no runner shall advance on the play.”

This rule is different than the one Murphy and the Brewers were arguing both on the field after the play and then following the game. That rule, which is Rule 6.01(a)(1), states it’s interference on a called third strike if the batter-runner “clearly hinders the catcher in his attempt to field the ball.”

Guccione, however, said that rule pertains to a different play.

“That’s not in this case,” Guccione said. “That’s a separate play. That’s if, say, a guy is stealing and the (batter) swings so hard that he steps across the plate and the catcher interferes with the batter, he would be called out. But in this case, it’s backswing interference.”

Murphy also argued on the field that Pinto initiated contact with Bauers swing by sliding forward in his attempt to block the ball.

Guccione indicated there was no room for judgment on if the catcher played a role in initiating the contact.

Unlike Sunday's play involving Judge, which crew chief Andy Fletcher admitted after the game was a missed call, this time the umpires were certain they made the correct call.

“Backswing is backswing,” Guccione said. “I know Murphy’s argument was the catcher had to go (forward) and try to get the ball. It doesn’t really apply in this case. Backswing is backswing and that’s what we have to enforce. We watched the video, it was clearly backswing interference. I could hear it from first base. That rule that they’re citing is something that does not apply in this situation.”

Though it could be argued both that Pinto played at least some role in initiating the contact with Bauers' bat as well as that the contact was minimal and would have had no outcome on the play that transpired, the rule does not leave much, if any, gray area for that type of interpretation.

Asked for his perspective on the play, Bauers placed the blame squarely on himself.

“I mean, if I don’t swing at a slider that bounces in the grass, we’re not in that situation,” he said. “That’s the way I look at it. Got to figure out a way to be better.”

Once the furor from the play and Murphy's subsequent ejection died down, Adam hit Rhys Hoskins with a pitch to load the bases for Blake Perkins.

That at-bat didn’t last long; Perkins struck out on three pitches to stretch Milwaukee’s losing streak to three games.

And the last two games with calls by the umpires ultimately looming large.

"Of course, you're frustrated," Murphy said. "You can't kill yourself for too long. We put ourselves in that position. But you want them to get it right, and I believe 100% that they got it wrong according to what I just read in the rulebook."

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Controversial call on Jake Bauers' swing sinks Brewers against Rays