Catcher rips hand open on hitters bat, a breakdown
What Happened
Jomboy digs up a strange play from the Cleveland Indians' second-to-last game of the 2018 season against the Kansas City Royals. With Whit Merrifield (the runner Jomboy calls 'Monday') on first, the Royals try a steal while Alex Gordon is at the plate against Corey Kluber. Catcher Yan Gomes' throw pops up oddly, and the replay reveals why: Gomes ripped his thumb open on Gordon's bat, which was hanging over the plate after Gordon's swing. The umpires huddle and call Gordon out on batter's interference because the bat was still in the zone, wiping out the steal and forcing backup catcher Roberto Perez into a game he thought was already finished.
Why This Matters
Batter's interference is one of the rarest calls in baseball, which is exactly why Jomboy went hunting for the league leader. The rule says a hitter can't hinder the catcher's throw or attempt to throw, and leaving the bat extended over the plate counts even on a completed swing. Gordon's argument that he 'just swung' didn't hold because the bat lingered in the catcher's path. The call killed the steal attempt and ended Gomes' afternoon with a bloody thumb. Context matters here too: 2018 Kluber was still an ace, a workhorse coming off back-to-back excellent years, and he escaped the jam after Perez took over behind the plate. For Cleveland this was a meaningless late-September game, but the freak injury and the obscure ruling made it a perfect candidate for a breakdown years later.
At 2.9M views it ranks #59 of 1,583 Jomboy breakdowns, landing in the top 3.7% of the entire catalog.
Key Moments
Who / What Is Involved
Players: Corey Kluber. Teams: Guardians.
Key Terms Mentioned
Full Transcript
Click timestamps to jump to that momenti was perusing through the stats the
other day being a weirdo seeing if
there's anyone that
leads the league in batter's
interference and i came across this clip
Corey Kluber 2018 second to last game of
the season
against the royals you got monday on
first base you got alex gordon at the
plate you got kluber on the mound last
start of the season
they don't want him to steal they go for
the pick off now here's where things get
very interesting monday is on the move
gomes tries to throw him out the ball
goes a little pop-up
flare shot no one really knows what
happened everyone's like please show us
the replay how could that have been
here we go nice pitch by kluber and now
the bat is right in the middle and
bam he hits his thumb right on the bat
and it instantly starts bleeding which
is
crazy to me how instant it is looks like
his nail
went into his nail bed he's just
bleeding i've lost two nails in my life
when i was younger i pulled the garage
door down by the crack in it because it
didn't have a handle on it and then it's
it flattened in my finger and i lost my
nail it was so scary and it hurt
gordon says i didn't even get in the way
because they're calling him out on
batter's interference here and he's like
how could that be batter's interference
i just swung the bat and then he hit my
bat
with his hand tell him to watch his hand
but the ump who looks like rob cordroy
says
the bat is in your hand so it's still
interference
because you see you get it and gordon's
like but i just swung he's like yeah but
you left your bat there after you're
swinging
yoast comes out to argue he's trying to
kind of confuse he tries to ask gordon
like what happened he's like
i have no idea i just swung i don't know
umpires get together they figure it out
and they're like yeah you know
he holds the bat the bat the bat is
uh the bat the bat is over home plate
and he swings
it's interference so he's out and then
they all say yeah sorry man that's uh
kind of the ruling we're going with here
i never seen that before kind of
interesting
modesty is like all right i'll go back
to first play base not going to be here
long roberto perez comes in thinking his
season's over and he's like i guess i'll
catch
another Corey Kluber game thumbs up here
we go they go a pitch out because they
know he's going to try to steal
he gets sat on but he does get the base
perez is like
really thought my season was just going
to be nice and over
then they move him to third so now corey
kluber has
the runner on third with two outs can he
escape this jam of course he can this
was 2018 Corey Kluber he was a horse
back then
he was still really good and he got a
check swing on that swing which i don't
really know
they didn't show any replays though and
then he goes high heater
easy peasy lemon squeezy cory kluber
gets out of the jam
john gomez ended his season on a really
weird play
so did alex gordon i wonder if he played
the next game god bless
me