Twins get screwed by lame loophole in fan interference rule vs. Brewers

While most eyes in Twins Territory were fixed 1,100 miles away from Target Field and on Joe Mauer's Hall of Fame induction speech, some chaos broke out in the Twins-Brewers game.

Milwaukee took a late lead in the eighth inning on a Rhys Hoskins home run that initially looked like it wasn't going to count. As Austin Martin retreated to the wall and attempted a leaping catch, a fan reached over the railing and caught it first.

This looked to be textbook fan interference, but it wasn't ruled that way on the field. The homer counted and the Twins fell into a 7-5 hole.

Twins get screwed by lame loophole in fan interference rule

MLB rules state that fan interference can only be called if a fan reaches into the field of play and disrupts things. While that looked to be the case here, as the fan is very clearly leaning over the railing, he wasn't officially in the field of play.

The flower bed between the home run wall and the railing is deemed out of play, therefore Martin was reaching beyond the wall to make a play and the interference occurred away from what is considered the field.

"He's reaching out over the little fence, but that fence is not the home run line," Twins beat writer Do-Hyoung Park explained to a fan who begged the question on social media. "It's set far back from the outfield wall by the flowerpots specifically so fans can't reach into the field of play here."

The fan, who was just a kid, got booed by the crowd at Target Field but they didn't do technically anything wrong. It's the ethics of reaching over the railing and being unaware of the play unfolding in front of them that can be discussed, but the rules very clearly state that nothing illegal happened on the home run.

Blaming the fan is a lame move, as the ball was very clearly a home run that Martin was going to rob. What's more notable is that the homer came off the usually reliable Griffin Jax, who had never allowed a home run on a 0-2 count in his entire career.

The Twins went into the All-Star break looking sluggish and have emerged from it the same way. It's annoying that a fan impeded what would have been a fantastic catch, but it's not the reason Minnesota struggled on Sunday afternoon.

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