Umpire gets taken out in the rundown ? pic.twitter.com/MqLp3EVDTk
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) August 2, 2020
The Giants had played cleaner baseball after the start to their series in Los Angeles, more resembling the team Gabe Kapler believed he would be managing following both spring and summer training.
The Giants reverted very quickly Friday.
One of the stranger baseball plays you’ll see finished with Tyler Heineman trucking third-base umpire Jim Wolf and wound up costing the Giants a pair of runs.
It began with Elvis Andrus on third and Joey Gallo on first, but Gallo was picked off; it was unclear whether he was trying to instigate the rundown. The rundown did not last long, with Brandon Belt throwing across the diamond and Andrus getting into a lengthy rundown (as Gallo took second).
Heineman, the catcher, thought he could catch Andrus at third, but was a half-step too slow. He slipped the ball to Donovan Solano, who applied the tag without a clear out/safe call — because Wolf was on the ground.
Heineman’s momentum took him into the longtime ump, who had to make the safe call from his back.
Wolf’s condition was not immediately clear and he left the field. The Giants were burned. Andrus was not the third out of the inning, and instead Todd Frazier singled in both Andrus and Gallo for a 2-0 first-inning lead.