Pierzynski Runs to First

October 12, 2005, Game 2 of the American League Championship Series at U.S. Cellular Field. The score was tied, 1–1, in the ninth, with two out and nobody on. Mark Buehrle had pitched the whole game for Chicago. A.J. Pierzynski swung through a full-count split-finger from Kelvim Escobar. Home-plate umpire Doug Eddings closed his fist, the signal for a strike. Catcher Josh Paul, in the game because José Molina had been lifted for a pinch-runner in the eighth, rolled the ball toward the mound. Escobar started off the field.

Pierzynski took a step toward the dugout and then ran to first. Eddings let him stay. The umpire's account was that the fist meant strike three, not an out, because the ball had hit the ground before it reached the glove. An uncaught third strike is a live ball. Paul and the Angels had treated the inning as over. Pablo Ozuna pinch-ran, stole second, and Joe Crede doubled him home. The White Sox won, 2–1.

One camera angle looks like a catch. Another looks like the ball touched dirt. Ken Williams, the White Sox general manager, said Paul dropped it. The Angels said he did not. Eddings did not change the call. The series, tied at a game apiece, went to Anaheim, and Chicago won the next three. The play is filed as a ruling, not as a punch line: the rule is real, the signal was incomplete, and the runner took the base the rule gave him if the ball was on the ground.