[andyfox]

Don't remember the play, sorry. I was at Dodger Stadium the night Don Drysdale threw his 6th consecutive shutout. The Giants had bases loaded in the 9th with hobody out and Drysdale hit Dick Dietz. (It was Drysdale's record that Orel broke.) The umpire wouldn't allow him to take his base, ruling, correctly in my judgment, that Dietz deliberately let the ball hit him without getting out of the way. Drysdale then got Dietz, and the next two, without a run scoring and preserved the shutout.

Your post above on the ruling was a good one. But I don't think Cano ran out of the lane. The rule states his feet must be in the lane or on the lines. I'm going by memory but I think his right foot was always in the lane and his left foot was always at least touching the line. That is, his toes might have been "over the line" but his foot was always at least touching the fair line.

Cano then darted to the left to avoid running into Erstad. As the lane ends at the base, his jumping to the left would not constitute being outside the lane. When I originally saw the play, and didn't know the exact language of the rule, I felt that, while somewhat ticky-tacky, the decision to rule interference on Cano was justified. Now I'm not so sure.

What I think happened is that Erstad just messed up and was set up in a spot where Molina couldn't get the ball to him. Generally speaking, on a ball behind the catcher, the first baseman will set up in foul territory, that being the best angle to avoid the throw from hitting the runner since the catcher is throwing from behind home plate. (My original proposal that Erstad might have set up there to create the appearance of interference seems wrong.) And he never saw the throw, being blocked out by Cano as the ball didn't go as far back behind the plate as it might have. He just missed it. It doesn't seem to me Cano interfered with Erstad taking the throw. In order for there to be interference Cano has to have run outside the lane and that act of running outside the lane had to interfere with Erstad handling the throw. I plead guilty to being a Yankee fan, but I honestly don't think either of those things happened.

If Cano darted to the left to hit the base, which he clearly did, how could he have been too far to the left to begin with?