I have to chalk this up to whatever the exact opposite of “bank error in your favor” would be. The Yankees’ Chris Stewart shouldn’t solely be blamed for this, even though it would appear to be all his fault. The young man somehow lost track of what the count he was and after he swung and missed on a 1-and-1 count he took a little trip back to the dugout thinking he struck out. The only issue was that he didn’t but somehow play resumed like nothing was wrong.
According to Eye on Baseball:
Nothing in the rulebook says home plate umpire Jim Wolf is obligated to call the hitter back to the plate in a situation like that.
“[Wolf] said something the first pitch, and I thought he called it a strike,” said Stewart to MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch after the game. “I assumed it was 0-1, I fouled a ball off and I swung and missed at a ball. No one said anything; the umpire didn’t say anything, so I just came on back to the dugout and put my stuff away.”
This is definitely the first time I have seen something like this happen. Luckily the Yanks went on to beat the Orioles by a score of 6-5.
