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Logan Morrison slides into base that doesn't exist trying to disrupt double play

It would appear Logan Morrison made an unnecessary turn somewhere around Aberdeen (Washington, that is).

Either that, or he was just a little too aggressive attempting to break up an inning-ending double play on Saturday night in Seattle.

We'll go with the latter, but admittedly it took a few seconds for it to settle in that Morrison literally slid 6-8 feet away from the second base bag, directly into Oakland shortstop Jed Lowrie, who was attempting to dodge contact and turn a double play.

Lowrie ended up eating the baseball rather than attempting to throw and ultimately getting scraped off the dirt. Needless to say, he made the right decision. However, the umpiring crew - particularly Brian Gorman, who was manning second base - seemed to struggle with the reality of Morrison's aggression, and at least initially didn't rule interference.

That would obviously change after A's manager Bob Melvin ran out and alerted the crew that Morrison was sliding to a base that didn't exist.

A legal break up slide constitutes the runner actually being able to touch or reach the base he's approaching. When a runner is just as close to the outfield grass as the base itself, chances are he's violating that rule.

Bottom line, the umpires eventually got the call correct. Both runners were ruled out, and the inning ended on the spot. That's the most important takeaway here. But what a bizarre situation to have play out in a very important game for both teams. Though it was aggressive, It didn't seem like Morrison was going out of his way to injure Lowrie. There's no history to speak of between the players or teams. It seems that as Oakland's shortstop kept moving away from the bag, Morrison kept going out with him, perhaps losing track of just how offline he was.

That's as good of an explanation as you'll get here. Thankfully, no one was injured and the game continued without incident. Oakland ended up winning 3-2 in 10 innings.

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Mark Townsend

is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!