Major League Baseball enacted new rules in 2015 to protect catchers from the exact kind of home-plate collision we saw in Sunday’s game between the Angels and Astros.
During the bottom of the eighth inning, Houston’s Jake Marisnick attempted to score, tagging from third on a fly ball, and he collided hard with the Angels’ Jonathan Lucroy.
Marisnick left his feet and drove a shoulder into Lucroy’s head.
Trainers rushed to the field to attend to Lucroy, who was in obvious pain and bleeding from his nose. Marisnick was called out on the play for the collision despite the ball going past Lucroy — as a result of those collision rules.
In real time, the collision looked absolutely brutal, but the play did not appear to be intentional. Marisnick looked to be dodging Lucroy by shifting towards fair territory only to have Lucroy go in the same direction. At that speed, Marisnick had no time to re-adjust and avoid Lucroy.
According to the team, Lucroy was taken to the hospital to undergo a CT scan and be evaluated for a concussion and nose fracture.
The Astros went on to win the game, 11-10, in 10 innings.
