The Minnesota Twins are in the thick of the postseason race, sitting just two games behind the Cleveland Guardians for first place. Some different drama unfolded this week, though, as Kyle Farmer challenged MLB and it's official scoring of a pretty wild play he was invovled in over the weekend.
Farmer appeared to hit an inside-the-park home run against Texas on August 17th. He hit a ball to deep center field that took a weird bounce off the wall, and allowed Farmer to come around to score on after reaching third base.
It looked like a Little League home run, but Rangers outfielder Leody Taveras was charged with an error for mishandling the ball and Farmer's hit was ruled a triple. He appealed that scoring decision but was officially shut down this week.
Kyle Farmer loses appeal over inside-the-park home run vs. Rangers
Everything about the play seemed like an inside-the-park homer, but it wasn't meant to be. The Athletic's Dan Hayes was the bearer of bad news, reporting that Farmer's appeal to have the scoring changed was denied and his inside-the-park home run will not count.
Instead it will go down as a triple plus an error that led to him scoring.
Kyle Farmer’s appeal was denied. His triple in Texas remains a triple. He was not awarded an inside-the-park-homer. He did not pass Go. He will not collect $200. #MNTwins
— DanHayesMLB (@DanHayesMLB) August 22, 2024
The official scoring of the play doesn't really count as much as it seems. While it would have been cool for it to have gone down as an inside-the-park home run, the fact that Farmer turned the play in at all was enough for Twins fans.
It's been a brutal year for Farmer, who agreed to a $6 million arbitration settlement over the winter but has failed to live up to the deal. He was the Twins' most expensive contract added during an offseason where the team slashed the payroll, which is something that has made his poor season even harder to stomach.
He's hitting a putrid .195/.288/.292 with a -0.8 WAR, but by all accounts he's part of the clubhouse nucleus powering the good vibes that have followed the team all season. He's essentially a more expensive version of Nick Gordon, but if he's part of what's working behind the scenes that in turn helps things on the diamond, then that might help make up for things.
Farmer hasn't had the season anyone wanted him to, but seeing him have this moment was still awesome -- even if baseball doesn't want to make it as fun as it seemed.
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