Brain Teaser

[David Emerling]

Originally Posted by Manny A

TIME!

Rule 7.07 states that when a catcher interferes with a batter during a squeeze attempt, play is killed immediately. So all that stuff that happened afterwards in your play is moot. The penalty is a balk on the pitcher and the batter gets first base. Since everybody is advanced one base, the first balk is ignored.

So the ruling is the same as the play ended up. R3 scores, R2 gets third, and the batter gets first.

I was also thinking that 7.07 covers everything, too. That is a very specific rule with a dual penalty; a balk and catcher's interference. But I was thinking - what if, instead of bunting the ball in front of the plate, the batter had hit a homerun?