Inside the controversial call that sparked the Blue Jays’ comeback over the Orioles
TORONTO — The Baltimore Orioles were heated in Sunday’s sixth inning against the Toronto Blue Jays. Pete Alonso yelled, walking toward second-base umpire Nic Lentz. Shane Baz and Gunnar Henderson screamed, too, and manager Craig Albernaz ran out of the dugout.
Ernie Clement, running to second base on a groundball, had dodged to the right and avoided Henderson, who feigned a tag and threw the ball to first. The Orioles thought it should’ve been an inning-ending double play, with Clement moving out of the basepath. Instead, with Clement deemed safe at second, it continued a five-run Jays comeback inning.
Orioles manager Craig Albernaz said umpires told him that Ernie Clement “established a baseline outside of his running path” and that Gunnar Henderson’s tag attempt wasn’t good enough on this play in the 6th inning.
(H/T: @JakeDRill) pic.twitter.com/5iMM2k2AG9
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) June 7, 2026
Lentz and crew chief Hunter Wendelstedt, speaking to a pool reporter in Toronto after the game, stood by the call.
“It actually is a very gentlemanly thing to do,” Wendelstedt said. “(Clement) was getting out of the way to allow the fielder to make the play towards first base. It just so happened that, you know, then they tried to spin it to get two (outs).”
The reason Clement was safe despite appearing to dodge Henderson’s tag, the umpires said, was because Clement had already established his basepath to second base while Henderson attempted to field the ball. By the time Henderson attempted to tag Clement, they said, the Jays infielder had already established his basepath and didn’t veer more than three feet from it.
Rule 5.09(b)(1) in the MLB rulebook states that a runner is out when “he runs more than three feet away from his base path to avoid being tagged unless his action is to avoid interference with a fielder fielding a batted ball. A runner’s base path is established when the tag attempt occurs and is a straight line from the runner to the base he is attempting to reach safely.”
When asked what Henderson could’ve done differently, Lentz said he wasn’t going to “get into how to be a shortstop.”
“If either one of us could be shortstops,” Wendelstedt added, “we’d be out there playing.”
While Jays manager John Schneider said he hadn’t watched the play back after the contest, he said his team “may have been fortunate.” Had Clement been called out, the inning would’ve ended. The Orioles, up four runs at the time, may have taken the series. Instead, Jesús Sánchez scored and the Jays rattled off three more two-out hits to take a lead.
When Baltimore hitter Tyler O’Neill, with one out in the ninth inning, was called out when attempting to avoid Louis Varland’s tag in front of first base, Baltimore’s dugout exploded again. Every player on the top step raised their arms in questioning anger, though Varland ultimately tagged O’Neill to dispel any further complaint.
Three pitches later, the game ended on a strikeout to seal Toronto’s 6-4 win.