Royals get better of Giants in puzzling sequence, umpire takes blame

The Kansas City Royals managed to pull off a very odd pitching change that got the better of the San Francisco Giants and Gabe Kapler.

During the seventh inning of Sunday's game at Oracle Park, the Royals went to remove Carlos Hernandez, who was suffering a hand ailment, with one on and two out.

With Royals left-hander Ryan Yarbrough warmed up, bench coach and acting manager Paul Hoover seemed to summon him from the bullpen. However, after a brief injury delay, K.C. opted to stick with Hernandez to get the final out of the inning.

Problems arose, however, once the Giants noticed Hernandez was staying in the game and opted to pinch-hit for righty-hander Austin Wynns with lefty Brent Sabol. Once the home team had made that lineup decision, the Royals changed their mind, removed Hernandez with an injury, and called Yarbrough from the 'pen yet again to get the lefty vs. lefty advantage.

This led Kapler to get heated and confront umpiring crew chief Dan Iassogna, seemingly requesting that Wynns make his plate appearance.

Kapler's protest was unsuccessful, though, and Yarbrough wound up striking out Sabol to end the seventh and maintain the Royals' 1-0 lead.

"Traditionally we'll wait to point the player into the game until the last second," Kapler said, according to Alex Pavlovic of the San Francisco Chronicle. "That's to make sure that they're not going to make the move before you point your pinch-hitter into the game. There was some confusion between me and the umpire because I never pointed Blake into the game."

Following the contest, Iassogna admitted it was his error, stating that Kapler never announced Sabol into the game and that the umpires shouldn't have made the change, according to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle.

"I looked over, and I saw Gabe looking at me, but I should have verified with Gabe and waited for him to point him into the game, but I didn't," Iassogna added. "I just saw (Kapler) looking at me and I heard (Sabol) say it. I mistakenly pointed him into the game right away. ... I put Sabol in the game."

Yarbrough would wind up allowing three runs in the subsequent frame, including a two-run homer to Michael Conforto, to take the loss.