Marcus Semien was out by a finger in Game 4 of the ALCS. The twist was that his hand wasn’t involved.
The Houston Astros got a big double-play in the fifth inning Thursday, when a line drive from Texas Rangers shortstop Corey Seager went right into the glove of first baseman José Abreu. The quick out caught Semien, who reached base on a single, far away from safety.
Abreu went for the tag, but a diving Semien was initially called safe. The Rangers thought they had avoided disaster in their attempt at a comeback from down 7-3 — until Houston challenged the call on the field.
Further replay showed that Abreu’s glove had, in fact, made contact with part of Semien’s body — specifically, his batting gloves, which were in his back pocket.
Unfortunately for Semien, tagging any part of a player’s uniform with the ball counts as an out, and batting gloves count as part of the uniform. The call on the field was overturned, ending the inning and another scoring chance for the Rangers.
It has been that kind of series for the Rangers since the ALCS arrived in Arlington, Texas. The Rangers looked strong in the first two games against their division rivals, who took the AL West title on the final day of the season, but got rolled in an 8-5 loss in Game 3 to miss out on a commanding 3-0 lead.
Game 4 started even worse, with the Astros’ first four batters reaching in a three-run top of the first. Texas tied the game in the next couple of innings, punctuated by a Corey Seager solo homer, but the Astros responded with a Yordan Álvarez sacrifice fly and a three-run homer from Abreu to take a four-run lead.
