Gunnar Henderson's tag attempt fueled Orioles-Blue Jays baserunning controversy

A day after a controversial missed call swung the tide in the Baltimore Orioles series finale against the Toronto Blue Jays, opinions about the incident are still flying around. Despite the fact that there is video evidence of Ernie Clement veering out of the basepath to avoid Henderson's tag, many Blue Jays fans and fans of umpires in general are still trying to claim that this play was correctly called by umpire Nic Lentz, with most of their arguments hinging on one specific part of the play: Henderson's tag attempt.

Gunnar Henderson undeniably tried to tag Ernie Clement

For those determined to prove that this play was called correctly, the attempted tag has become a fixation. There has been an outcry that Henderson's attempted tag was not good enough. This excuse for the bad call stems from the umpires themselves, who, in explaining the call to Craig Alberanz and the media, said at one point that Henderson's tag had been judged to not be good enough.

This excuse does not hold any water. The umpires admit several times in their pool report that Henderson did try to tag Clement. Here is the exact quote from the pool report:

"The reason Clement was safe despite appearing to dodge Henderson’s tag, the umpires said, was because Clement had already established his basepath to second base while Henderson attempted to field the ball. By the time Henderson attempted to tag Clement, they said, the Jays infielder had already established his basepath and didn’t veer more than three feet from it."

In that quote, they mention Henderson's tag multiple times. Clearly, they acknowledge that an attempt occurred. Fans can say it wasn't demonstrative enough or compare it to Louis Varland's tag of Jackson Holliday later in the game, but it doesn't matter. The rule is that the base runner cannot leave the base path to avoid a tag, and that's exactly what Clement did, even if Henderson didn't "sell the call" the way some people would have him do. This isn't the NBA, where your acting skills come into play.

Once Henderson ran towards Clement with his arms extended, and Clement took a hard right towards the outfield and moved more than three feet to his right, which he obviously did, he should have been called out, end of story. Any talk about Henderson not selling the tag enough is useless whataboutism.

Ernier Clement clearly left the basepath to avoid a tag

The other part of the play that is subject to some debate is that fans are claiming that before Henderson fielded the ball, Clement moved to the side and created a base path that he did not veer from. If this were true, then the play would have been called correctly.

Fortunately, the games are on TV and filmed by dozens of cameras. Any angle of the incident clearly shows that Clement and Henderson were lined up almost exactly when Henderson fielded the ball and began running towards Clement to tag him before Clement bubbled out of the basepath to avoid the tag.

Go watch the replay and pause the game when Henderson fields the ball, and see where Clement is standing, and then pause it again when Clement runs around Henderson, and it's obvious to see that what the umpire says he saw happen is not what happened.

Even Blue Jays manager John Schneider was willing to admit that the Blue Jays got away with one in his post-game press conference. When Clement was asked about the play, he said, "I guess I created my own lane," which is a very neutral way of saying "I don't know how I was called safe".

The reason that Clement and Schneider don't feel the need to go to mattresses defending an obvious missed call is that it really doesn't matter. The win is in the bank, and if the Blue Jays go on to win anything this year (not likely), nobody is going to come back at the end of the season and say "well, what about the missed call against the Orioles in June". It's over, the Blue Jays won, and the Orioles have 96 games left to make up for it.

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