BOSTON - In the Red Sox 8-1 victory over the Cardinals in Game 1 of the World Series, we saw two areas where baseball's scoring rules are a bit funny ... or maybe odd ... or maybe just plain stupid.
For example, on the following play, Pete Kozma completely missed a feed on what would have been an easy double play ball.
Now, Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz was the man going down the first-base line. If there's no error on the play, the Cardinals turn a routine double play.
However, since the rules dictate that you "can't assume the double play," Ortiz's ensuing run scored was an earned run for Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright. If there were no force out in play and Ortiz reached on an error, his run would have been unearned.
So why can't we assume a double play? It's just silly to me. I can assume one. If there were no errors, the Cardinals were going to turn a double play. So, again, tell me why we can assume an out on non-double-play errors but can't assume the second out? It makes very little sense.
Next up, the box score and play-by-play log show that Stephen Drew started a second-inning rally with a single.
This was his single.
It's not an error because no one touched it. So that's a "single."
Again, a bit silly, no? If we're going to say that the defense messing up and allowing a guy to get on base when he clearly should have been out is an error, how the hell is this not an error?
In the end, obviously these two statistical measures are pretty irrelevant. The only thing that really matters is the final score and who wins, and these decisions had zero bearing on the final.
It's just that it doesn't make the scoring rules any less silly.
