This past week I watched a lot of baseball since it is that time of year where the MLB playoffs are beginning to kick off into high gear. So far there have been a lot of exciting action packed games and epic comebacks with the Royals fighting back from a series deficit and six outs from being eliminated by the Houston Astros, but I don't think that any can compare to the game five winner take all and advance to the American League Conference Series (ALCS) game with Texas Rangers facing the Toronto Blue Jays in Toronto. There was a lot of excitement in this particular game as there was a controversial call that allowed a run to score for Texas giving them the lead, along with the benches clearing at least twice in the seventh inning that took about an hour to complete.

First there was controversy as Texas Rangers player Rougned Odor was on third base, and Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Russell Martin was attempting to throw the ball back to the pitcher but the ball accidentally hit the bat of Shin-Soo Choo, and Odor was ruled to be safe at home and the run was allowed to score. It would seem that the right call was made because Choo did not intentionally interfere with the throw and was in the batters box going through his usual pre-pitch routine. The rules state that if a batter is standing in the batter's box and either he or his bat is struck by the catcher's throw back to the pitcher or throw in attempting to retire a runner and in the umpire's judgement, there is no intent on the part of the batter to interfere with the throw that the ball is considered to be live and in play. Immediately after the play Rangers manager Jeff Banister initially came out to argue the call before reviewing the play as the ball was first declared to be dead by the umpires. After, the umpires spoke and overturned the call.  

Of course the Blue Jays disagreed with the call and played the game under protest of the umpire's ruling, but ultimately the correct call was made and the Blue Jays catcher should have been more careful with the throw. The mayhem continued after the run was allowed to score as the crowd at Rogers Centre went crazy and threw beer bottles and cans and all sorts of other things onto the field in protest of the call against the home team. In addition Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Mark Buehrle was ejected for yelling from the dugout.

After the arguments and reviews the total delay time was 18 minutes. After the game resumed and got going again Blue Jays player Jose Bautista hit a go ahead three run home run and flipped his bat while staring down the ball which really annoyed the Rangers. While Bautista was rounding the bases fans threw more garbage onto the field and Royals player Edward Encarnacion stood next to the batter's box waving his hands to try to keep the crowd from throwing objects, which was misconstrued by pitcher Sam Dyson and led to words being exchanged by the two teams and the benches clearing for the first time. After order was restored and the final out was recorded, Dyson walked over to Blue Jays player Troy Tulowitzki at home plate where more words were exchanged which led to the benches clearing again.

This has to go down as one of the craziest games ever in baseball, and it is crazy how a baseball game can turn into a lot more than just a game, with the tensions running so high that fans are throwing garbage onto their home team's field.