Sometimes baseball gets weird, and Wednesday afternoon at George M. Steinbrenner Field was one of those times. What started as a routine strikeout turned into a procedural nightmare that left Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash so fired up that his own players said they’d never seen him like that before.
The Rays were cruising to an 8-4 victory over the Houston Astros when the top of the eighth inning took a bizarre turn. Edwin Uceta was dealing, working a 2-2 count against Astros catcher Yainer Diaz. The right-hander delivered a fastball that caught Diaz swinging – except the pitch also hit his hand. In most situations, that’s a dead ball and a hit-by-pitch. But since first-base umpire Brian Walsh determined that Diaz had swung at the pitch, it was ruled a strikeout instead.
Simple enough, right? Hit by pitch plus swing equals strikeout. Inning over, Rays come to bat. Except that’s when things got complicated in a way that only modern baseball, with its replay reviews and procedural intricacies, can make them.
As the Rays started jogging off the field, the umpires huddled with Astros manager Joe Espada. Crew chief Alan Porter appeared ready to announce that Houston was challenging the call, which is when Cash emerged from the dugout looking for answers. What happened next was pure Kevin Cash – if Kevin Cash was replaced by someone with significantly less patience and a much shorter fuse.
I’ve got to get some clarification on everything, and I’ll talk to Major League Baseball, Cash said after the game, still clearly frustrated by the whole ordeal. From my point of view – I’m not saying that this is right – they called him out on the field immediately, as in a strikeout, so it’s over. There’s nothing to challenge.
This is where Cash’s frustration becomes understandable. In his mind, the sequence was straightforward: his pitcher threw a strike, the batter swung and missed while getting hit by the pitch, and the umpires correctly ruled it a strikeout. Case closed, inning over, everybody move along. But baseball’s replay system doesn’t always align with common sense, and what followed was a masterclass in how procedural confusion can turn a routine play into a full-blown controversy.
The problem was that while certain foul balls aren’t reviewable, hit-by-pitch calls are. Porter later explained to reporters that the umpires “had to get to those terms,” which created the delay that set Cash off. The Astros initially thought it was a foul ball, but to challenge the play, they had to frame it as challenging whether it was a hit-by-pitch or not, since that’s the only reviewable aspect.
They thought that it was a foul ball. So, now, you have to get to ‘not hit-by-pitch’ as opposed to ‘not foul ball,’ Porter explained. So that’s the terminology that was kind of being thrown around out there. They thought it was a foul ball. OK, so now, we have to get to, ‘What do you want to challenge?’ Challenge that it is not a hit-by-pitch? Because hit-by-pitch or not hit-by-pitch is the only thing that is reviewable.
Got all that? Neither did Cash, apparently, because by the time forty seconds had passed and the crew chief announced a challenge, the Rays manager had reached his breaking point. What made it worse from Cash’s perspective was that he wasn’t being kept in the loop about these procedural discussions happening on the other side of the field.
I wasn’t privy to those conversations on the other side, Cash said. The other thing is that we have to come out and you have to clarify, ‘Hey, I’m going to challenge this call. I want an explanation.’ Forty seconds went by, and then there was a challenge – I’m being told, a crew chief challenge.
The sight of Cash losing his composure was so unusual that it became the story, even more than the confusing replay situation itself. Several Rays players, including veteran Yandy Díaz, said they had never seen their manager that animated. Josh Lowe probably spoke for everyone when he said, He got after it today. I wish I could hear a hot mic on that one, but cool to see.
And Cash really did get after it. The ejection marked the first time this season and the 19th time in his career that he’d been tossed from a game, but this one felt different. This wasn’t the calculated, measured Kevin Cash that Rays fans have come to know. This was a manager whose frustration with what he saw as an unnecessary delay and confusing process boiled over into an unusually animated display.
The scene became even more surreal when Cash was led off the field by bench coach Rodney Linares, only to storm back onto the field to continue his argument with the umpires. That return trip could potentially lead to further discipline, since MLB Rule 6.04(d) clearly states that ejected personnel must leave immediately and stay away from the field. But in that moment, Cash was clearly beyond caring about procedural niceties.
Meanwhile, as their manager was having his meltdown, Uceta and catcher Ben Rortvedt had to return to the field to warm up, just in case the review somehow reversed the call and the inning continued. The image of players stretching and throwing while their manager gesticulated wildly at home plate perfectly captured the bizarre nature of the whole situation.
The irony, of course, is that after all the drama, confusion, and heated arguments, the review upheld the original call. Diaz struck out, the inning was over, and the game continued exactly as it would have if none of this procedural madness had occurred. The Rays still won 8-4, capping off a series victory with four first-pitch home runs and solid pitching.
Here’s the thing, folks: The real story wasn’t the final score or even the confusing replay situation. It was seeing Kevin Cash, the epitome of modern baseball’s analytical, measured approach to management, completely lose his cool over what amounted to a forty-second delay and some unclear communication. For a manager who’s built his reputation on staying calm under pressure and making calculated decisions, it was a reminder that even the most composed leaders have their breaking points.
With that… In a sport that’s increasingly governed by procedures, protocols, and reviews, sometimes the human element breaks through in unexpected ways. Wednesday afternoon at Steinbrenner Field, that human element wore a Rays uniform and had a lot to say about replay review processes.
If you cannot play with them, then root for them!