I might get blasted here but since R1 was stealing on the pitch, I'm not going to restrict him to second base on this play. The OP indicates that the resulting rolling ball is going rather slowly towards the dugout. I'm not going to reward the defence for either a bad pitch or a passed ball and a lazy catcher for not quickly chasing the ball by putting R1 back on second.
If R1 hadn't been stealing I might kill the play but probably not, the catcher should be chasing the ball and not standing at homeplate waiting for the ball to eventually roll into the dugout.
If the ball was flying into the dugout and the on-deck batter deliberately stops it then I would kill the play for sure and award second. But in this situation, R1 stealing and a slow roller towards dugout with no deliberate interference by the on-deck batter, I stand with my original call--> live ball and play on.
Last edited by tibear; Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 02:32pm.
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