Marcus Stroman had a strange moment during a game with two outs and runners on first and second in the bottom of the third. After getting ahead 0-2, the next batter hit a soft ground ball. The runner heading to second was trying to beat the force but collided with the second base umpire, who appeared to shift into his path. It wasn’t a hard hit ball, and the shortstop, Dansby Swanson, was charging in to make a play. At the same time, the ump seemed to be moving to avoid a potential throw to first. That movement put him directly in the runner’s lane, leading to the awkward collision.
The weird part was how normal everyone acted at first. The ump started on the grass but ended up on the dirt, indicating he had moved during the play. The manager questioned the positioning, asking if that was standard. The ump responded that it was. Still, the incident was unusual enough that they pulled up video on an iPad to review what happened. It turned out to be exactly what it looked like on the field—a rare, accidental run-in. The ump didn’t mean to obstruct, but his attempt to clear space for a throw ended up creating a new problem. No interference was called, and the play stood. It was one of those odd baseball moments you don’t see often, even if nothing technically went wrong.