CLEVELAND — At the end of the day, putting aside the drama and controversy surrounding the fact that it took two innings to happen, the official scorer got it right.
Chandler Simpson’s ground ball off the glove of Paul Goldschmidt in the sixth inning Sunday at Steinbrenner Field was a hit, and had Max Fried not been working on a no-hitter at the time, it may well have been called as such in the moment given Simpson’s lightning-quick speed.
Of course, it was initially ruled an error and then changed to a hit in the middle of the eighth inning as Fried jogged out to the mound thinking he still had a no-hitter intact, only to essentially lose it twice: on the scoring change, and a few minutes later, a clean leadoff single by Jake Mangum.
