Missed ball-strike call leads to costly pickoff in World Series Game 3

With nobody out and a 3-1 count in the second inning of World Series Game 3, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow threw a high sinker to Daulton Varsho.

The pitch to the Toronto Blue Jays outfielder appeared to be ball four. Home-plate umpire Mark Wegner, however, called it a strike.

Assuming Varsho had walked, Toronto’s Bo Bichette — who had reached on a single — began shuffling toward second. After receiving the ball back from the catcher, Glasnow threw to Freddie Freeman at first, and Freeman tagged out Bichette to change the complexion of the inning.

Varsho stood a few steps down the first-base line, confused in a loud environment. On the Fox broadcast, analyst John Smoltz referred to Wegner’s strike call as “late” and “soft.”

“Mark has a bit of a slow signal, but he voices the pitch beforehand,” former MLB umpire Dale Scott wrote as part of The Athletic’s live World Series coverage. “Obviously, the hitter thought it was a ball four and started walking away. I think the baserunner saw the batter starting to come toward first (and) thought it was a walk also.”

Varsho eventually walked to end an eight-pitch at-bat and advanced to third on an Alejandro Kirk single. But Addison Barger struck out, and Ernie Clement hit a soft liner that was caught in center field to end the inning.

Instead of taking a 1-0 lead, a puzzling play that went down as a pickoff at first left the Blue Jays scoreless in the second inning. The Dodgers soon took the lead on a home run from Teoscar Hernández.

“One thing you cannot do as a runner is assume that a pitch is a ball or a strike,” Scott wrote. “Even though you think the ball is high like in this case, it’s nothing until the umpire calls, and whatever he calls it, that’s what it is.”

Blue Jays manager John Schneider had a lengthy talk with Wegner between innings.

“Mark is a great umpire, been doing it a long time,” Schneider said on the Fox broadcast. “Very delayed call, pretty deliberate. Just didn’t say anything, so Varsh assumed it was a ball, and Bo assumed. I just asked him, in this environment, can he be a little bit quicker or give a little bit more clarity so everyone kind of knows what’s going on.”

Asked what happened with Bichette at first base, Schneider continued.

“It’s a weird play,” Schneider said. “You don’t want that to come back and bite you, but you want to let the players decide what’s going on.

The Athletic’s Stephen J. Nesbitt contributed to this report

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