This has been discussed; it was commented on by the home team announcers at the game. You are correct, but for the wrong reason. You can be forgiven, as you don't understand the entire context.Hokie_PhD wrote: One it didn't look like Ortiz asked for time out. And if it's not granted then he should stay in the box. Players step out of the box all the time like asking for it is automatic. So it not being granted and the resulting strike are the right call unless something has changed.
Ortiz wasn't given a strike to swing at all day. In baseball it's sometimes called the intentional unintentional walk - if that makes sense. You hope that a player that's on fire will swing at a pitch that's not a strike, knowing that said pitch cannot be hit and you don't dare put one in the zone. This was happening to David all day long. Some of the pitches were in fact thrown at him. The pitcher knew what was going on, the catcher knew what was going on, the ump knew what was going on, David knew what was going on, and the entire stadium knew what was going on. David was putting up with the faux IBB, until the starting pitcher commenced with the head hunting. That's not funny. So after one throw at the head and a clear intent not to throw him a strike, David stepped back even before the pitcher released the ball. He wasn't trying to call time out; he was engaging in an act of self-preservation.
Technically David committed a violation. If you step out of the batter's box, it's an automatic strike. The home team radio announcers mentioned this, and they were correct. What isn't clear is if the umpire was calling ball 4 a strike because he disagreed with the location (barely a strike high in the zone) or he was calling a strike because David stepped out of the box. The latter was *never* established after the fact when the appeal was made, so we cannot assume it.
If the umpire had intended the latter and he wanted to keep control of the game, he should have quietly told David he stepped out of the box. But he didn't. So the situation escalated.
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- Bill