Blue Jays fan anger about little-known MLB rule that helped Dodgers has ironic twist

The Toronto Blue Jays had a chance to either tie or win in the ninth inning of Game 6 of the World Series on Friday, but a lodged ball in the outfield thwarted their plans.

After Alejandro Kirk was hit by a pitch to start the bottom of the ninth, Myles Straw came in as a pinch runner for the Blue Jays’ catcher as Addison Barger stepped up to the plate. He hit a line drive off a 2-2 pitch that found the gap in left-center field, but the ball wound up being wedged under the outfield padding.

Both Straw and Barger rounded the bases and crossed home plate, only for umpires to point them back to third and second base, respectively, after ruling it a "dead ball" that resulted in a ground rule double for Barger. The Blue Jays failed to plate a run in the inning, and the Los Angeles Dodgers held on to win Game 6 and force a winner-take-all Game 7 on Saturday.

Blue Jays fans were decidedly displeased with the call, believing the rarely-seen dead ball rule cheated their team out of an opportunity to put the series away. But the irony here lies in the perfect reversal of fortune – and rule – that bit Toronto twice in opposite ways.

Dodgers benefit from MLB's dead ball rule just a month after Blue Jays fail to use it to their advantage

Just a month earlier, the Blue Jays had fallen victim to the dead ball rule in a game against the Cincinnati Reds – this time, on the defensive side of the ball.

When TJ Friedl hit a ball off of Blue Jays right-hander Brendon Little that became wedged in the outfield wall padding at Great American Ball Park, Nathan Lukes didn’t recognize it as a dead ball. He played it live, throwing it back in while Cincinnati’s runners kept circling the bases.

Because Lukes tried to play the ball, the umpires didn’t immediately call it lodged, and the Reds plated two runs ... until a review overturned the play on the field and ruled it a ground-rule double after the fact, scoring just one. It was an embarrassing defensive lapse that boiled down to a missed understanding of the “lodged ball equals dead ball” rule, and it nearly cost the Jays before the umpires stepped in and aided them. We can't all have the institutional knowledge of Justin Dean, it seems.

No harm, no foul, though. Despite the umpires intervening on their behalf to give them a second chance, the Jays swiftly lost anyway.

Then, in the World Series, Toronto was on the other end of the same rule. Barger’s liner wedged in the padding – and this time, Dodgers outfielders Kiké Hernández and Justin Dean threw their hands up to to alert the umpires, who correctly ruled the ball dead before the runners could score.

Instead of benefiting from confusion or inattention, the Blue Jays lost a potential game-tying or walk-off moment because the Dodgers made a heads-up defensive play, and the rule was properly enforced.

Toronto fans who once watched the dead ball rule help their team survive (briefly) despite their lack of awareness now felt its strict enforcement cost their team a chance at history – and Dodgers fans can't get enough of the irony.