That was intentional. The catcher pretended to be blocking a pitch in the dirt, but the pitch started out high and never dropped. Even the best breaking ball doesnt drop that much.
I saw something similar in a softball game. Coach had been on umps all night about every single call. They finally told him one more word and he was gone. Next batter, inside pitch, catcher leans way to the side, lets ball go by, but it missed the ump. Ump went and got the UIC and asked that he watched the rest of the game because he expected more trouble. Later that night I was talking with UIC and he asked my opinion if it was intentional or not. I told him that in my opinion it most certainly was, catcher made blatant attempt to move to let ball pass.
|