Phillies

Craig Kimbrel and Josh Rojas at the Center of Some Ump Show Nonsense

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: May 25th, 2023 · 9:27 AM EDT

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You see this on Wednesday? –

John Kruk has had enough of the new rules.

"Ah dear crap almighty!"

"What a joke! What a circus this game's turned into!"

"What the hell's Kimbrel supposed to do? This is a joke… keep making up rules until no one knows what's going on." ⚾️🎙️ pic.twitter.com/5dz5Sx1MDb

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 24, 2023

I was in the car at the time and listening on the radio, so it was hard to get a full grasp of what was going on. Scott Franzke did his best to try to narrate through it.

It’s pretty confusing. There are actually two different things going on here. Before the video clip begins, there was, we thought, a rules violation on Rojas at the plate. There was a lengthy discussion with Torey Lovullo and the umps and then… nothing happened. No ball, no strike, no nothing.

Then, specific to Kimbrel, before Rob Thomson comes out, it’s an issue of the pitcher coming set prior to Rojas being in the box. If you look at the sequence, Rojas has one foot out of the box when Kimbrel starts his routine, so he hasn’t “engaged” Kimbrel, and that’s when the ump walks out and everything goes to shit.

The DBacks radio crew did a pretty good job of explaining it:

2/2 pic.twitter.com/WwztN7se89

— Nick Piccone (@_piccone) May 25, 2023

The funny thing is that Kimbrel struck Rojas out anyway, so go figure. Phils walk it off in the 10th.

Good morning.