Juan Soto whines to umpire after shuffling his way into an obvious strikeout
By Mark Powell
The Juan Soto shuffle is oh so much fun when it works. When it doesn't Soto has no one to blame but himself.
In the New York Yankees Sunday afternoon matchup against the Atlanta Braves, Soto was called out in the bottom of the eighth inning when he tried to call time. The new pitch clock rules do allow hitters to call time, as has always been the case, but Soto tried to step out of the batters box with a second remaining on the pitch clock.
Allowing Soto the opportunity to call time wouldn't have been fair to the Braves relief pitcher, in this case Joe Jimenez. The onus is typically on the pitcher to make sure they start their throwing motion towards home plate by the time the clock expires. If not, they risk losing the at-bat altogether, as the rulebook explains:
"The pitcher must begin his motion to deliver the pitch before the expiration of the pitch timer. Pitchers who violate the timer are charged with an automatic ball. Batters who violate the timer are charged with an automatic strike."
Did Juan Soto get screwed on strikeout against the Braves?
Here is the play in question, as the home plate umpire called a third strike against Soto despite his attempt to call time.
Soto quickly turned around to argue with Chris Conroy, but to no avail. Aaron Boone did his best to defend Soto. However, the call on the field stood, as it should have.
This comes just two days after Braves announcer Darren O'Day called Soto out for arguing with the home plate ump over a strike call.
"That's infuriates me, watching Juan Soto complain to umpire," said O'Day. "It's definitely a perfectly executed slider down and away. Go back to the dugout, look at it on the iPad and you struck out, fair and square."
Surely, he couldn't have been much happier about Soto's actions on Sunday.