Spring coaching baseball is commonly far totally different from the common season. However I didn’t realize it may get as “totally different” because it did on Tuesday.

In a spring coaching recreation in Bradenton, FL, the Baltimore Orioles and Pittsburgh Pirates accomplished the highest of the ninth inning with the designated home-team Pirates up 7-4. That ought to have been the tip of the sport, and the umpires left since their jobs have been performed.

However the groups didn’t. As an alternative, all of the gamers simply … saved taking part in!

The managers of each groups had a dialogue about getting yet another half inning of recreation motion earlier than the day’s finish, for the reason that Orioles needed to get reliever Ofreidy Gomez some work. Nevertheless, the umpires weren’t on board with the plan, so the groups simply saved the sport going with the Orioles catcher Maverick Handley calling balls and strikes.

The Pirates and Orioles determined to play an additional half inning of baseball with out umpires though the sport was completed 😂

(h/t @cespedesbbq) pic.twitter.com/WflybcX6tF

— B/R Stroll-Off (@BRWalkoff) February 28, 2023

“A bit backfield motion,” Orioles supervisor Brandon Hyde advised the Baltimore Solar after the sport. “We have been advised by the league that we may clear it by the umpires and pitch the underside half of the ninth inning, and I assume [crew chief] Chad Fairchild felt that we couldn’t.”

Baseball is a type of sports activities the place you can be a fan for 40 years and also you’ll nonetheless see stuff you’ve by no means seen earlier than. Tuesday was a hilarious reminder of that.