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Blue Jays slide to controversial loss against Rays

Blue Jays outfielder Jose Bautista was called out following a video review as umpires ruled he slid past the bag – a violation of the so-called Chase Utley rule enacted this off-season – and interfered with Tampa Bay Rays second baseman Logan Forsythe as Forsythe attempted to turn a game-ending double play.

The ruling gave the Rays their first victory of the season and marked a historic moment for a rule intended to keep middle infielders safe – while also angering and befuddling the Blue Jays.

After Bautista was forced out at second – sliding into second aggressively, but not viciously, his hand making contact with Forsythe’s right foot – Forsythe’s throw was wide of the first base bag, which meant Ryan Goins crossed the plate as the tying run – and Josh Donaldson scrambled home with the go-ahead run.

Or not.

Video review showed Bautista slid past the bag and also used his left hand to obstruct Forsythe. After about a 90-second delay, replay officials in MLB’s New York headquarters ruled Bautista out.

No tying run. No go-ahead run. And the Rays’ first victory of the year, in unprecedented fashion.

The Blue Jays looked stunned in the visitor’s dugout at Tropicana Field, and were livid afterward.

“You’re going to end the game like that? It’s a joke,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons told reporters. “Maybe we’ll come out and wear dresses tomorrow. Maybe that’s what everybody’s looking for.”

Said Bautista: “Common sense has to come into this. I feel like I slid directly at the bag. I could have done much worse and chose not to.”

Forsythe’s two-run homer in the eighth inning gave the Rays a 3-2 lead, and his error in the ninth opened the door for the Blue Jays. It appeared his second error of the inning gave Toronto the lead and a chance at a three-game sweep.

Instead, his homer stood up as the game-winner.

“He took my throw a little to the left, but..I don’t know,” Forsythe said in a postgame interview on the Rays’ TV broadcast. “We talked about it a lot in spring and we’re going to play it out and see how it goes. It makes us stay around the bag more.”

The rule came about after Utley’s late slide resulted in a broken leg for New York Mets infielder Ruben Tejada during the 2015 NL Division Series. The so-called “neighborhood play” rule was altered just before spring training.

And it came into play in most dramatic fashion Tuesday night.

“I feel like I respected the rule,” Bautista said. “I feel like it was an absolutely clean slide. It’s disappointing and somewhat embarrassing to lose a major league baseball game (like this). There’s so much at stake every single day here. We put so much hard work and dedication into this. We grow up playing the game a certain way, since we were little kids. All of a sudden, to have everything taken away…I don’t know, it’s strange.

“I felt like I was still in those boundaries. Player safety should always be a big concern. I just don’t see how my play was unsafe.”

Umpiring crew chief Mike Everitt told the Tampa Bay Times that replay officials in New York told him only that Bautista “hindered and impeded” Forsythe.