Don’t get in Oliver Marmol’s way during a challenge.
One Oakland Athletics security guard learned that the hard way Monday night when the Cardinals manager grabbed him by his collar to move him out of the way while attempting to challenge.
That brief delay resulted in the Cardinals not calling for a replay in time, which upset Marmol. The call ultimately did not matter in the Cardinals’ 3-1 victory.
Weird things can happen at the Coliseum and this zaniness unfolded in the seventh inning after the Athletics turned an inning-ending double play.
The Cardinals wanted to challenge whether Brendan Donovan was safe at second base on the tag play, and as Marmol looked at bench coach Daniel Descalso a security official walked in front of him.
Marmol first stopped the man with his right hand, who appeared to stumble, before Marmol grabbed him by his collar while still looking toward his bench coach.
Descalso eventually gave Marmol a thumbs up to challenge and the Cardinals manager indicated to the umpires he wanted to do so.
It seems the umpires then told Marmol he had missed his cutoff, since he stuck out his arms in a “What he hell?” manner.
The security official, perhaps realizing at this point he had screwed up, threw his hands up as if to indicate “My bad,” while Marmol then pointed at the security official.
Marmol then walked toward the umpires while pointing at the security guard, who eventually raised his hand as if to admit that he had indeed blocked the manager.
The umpires, though, did not change their verdict about Marmol missing the deadline.
“But unfortunately, Cardinals not too happy about it, they were looking to challenge but security may have ran a little interference,” one of the game’s announcers said, as heard in the Cardinals’ highlights package on their YouTube channel. “Oli Marmol not too happy about it, and he went out to discuss but to no avail. Just an unfortunate chain of events for the Cardinals and Marmol. That is just tough.”
The Cardinals are 8-9 this season and play the second game of this three-game set Tuesday night, while the Athletics are 7-10.
