Strange Play in Cleveland

[ctblu40]

As described, this is not a balk. The pitcher stepped to and threw the ball to first base in an attempt to retire R1. He did not (as described) throw to F3 away from first base.

J/R has this to say:

However, it is not a balk if the pitcher steps to
(a) first base and throws over the base when the first baseman is not in a position to make a tag attempt.

Perhaps the crew felt that they put the defense at a disadvantage by calling the balk (i.e. F3 did not attempt to play on R1).

Who knows... but no balk.