Major League Baseball

Bautista hits majors-leading 37th homer

Published Aug. 17, 2010 6:49 a.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

foxsports

Toronto's Jose Bautista hit his major league-leading 37th home run Monday night. It took nearly two hours to decide what kind of home run it was.

Bautista hit a 3-0 pitch from Brett Anderson that cleared the wall in left field but hit the foul pole and bounced back onto the field.

Third base umpire Tim Timmons pointed toward the turf, apparently signaling the ball in play. Oakland left fielder Conor Jackson watched with his back against the wall as the ball bounced toward the infield while Bautista raced around the bases for what was initially ruled an inside-the-park home run.

Replays showed the ball clearly hitting the yellow foul pole.

Toronto won 3-1.

Official scorer Michael Duca met with officials from both teams during the game then spoke with the umpiring crew after Toronto's 3-2 victory before changing the ruling to a normal home run.

''It was probably out of the ballpark,'' Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston said. ''I'd like to see it stay as an inside-the-parker. That would mean he has two this year.''

Bautista had an inside-the-park home run July 7 against Minnesota.

share

Get more from Major League Baseball Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

Major League Baseball