Yoenis Cespedes says error was misunderstanding

Yoenis Cespedes allowed an inside-the-park home run in spring training because of a misunderstanding of the rules. 

Some MLB rules can be a bit difficult to understand. New York Mets outfielder Yoenis Cespedes discovered the rule about the ball getting stuck under a fence the hard way on Thursday after allowing an inside-the-park home run against the Houston Astros. It was a complicated play where the ball stopped under the fence. Cespedes believed that meant that it was a ground rule double if he alerted the umpires of it.

“The ball fell under the fence,” Cespedes said, via ESPN. “It got wedged in there. For me, I couldn’t grab that. I thought that should have followed the ground rule and should have just been the double.”

Cespedes isn’t the first outfielder to be confused by the rule and he likely won’t be the last. Luckily, this lesson was learned in spring training when the games don’t matter in the standings. Cespedes has hopefully learned his lesson so that if this situation occurs again, he’ll know what to do.

Cespedes will likely be making the switch to center field this season after primarily being a left fielder for most of his career before being traded to the Mets last season.

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