sposfan
Posts: 212
Joined: 4/13/2005 Status: offline
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It just happened in one of the Yankees/Red Sox games from this past weekend. ARod started at DH, but in the 9th, Bernie Williams PH for Nick Green. In the defensive half of the inning, Williams stayed in the game in RF, ARod went to 3B and Rivera was inserted in Abreu's spot, effectively a double switch. http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/boxscore.jsp?gid=2006_08_20_nyamlb_bosmlb_1 There are a few peculiarities to the DH Rule (rule 6.10 of the Major League Baseball Rules): The DH is optional. A team may decide to bat its pitcher and not use a designated hitter in a game where it would normally be used. There are no cases of Major League teams declining the use of a DH in a game. The DH can play in the field, but once a manager decides to play him on defense, the pitcher immediately takes over the batting spot of the defensive player which the DH replaced (unless there are multiple substitutions, in which case the manager can decide where the pitcher will bat). The team then forfeits the use of the DH for the rest of the game. This happens a few times every season, and sometimes results in a pitcher being forced to bat in an AL game. The DH spot is locked in the order. If the DH bats, for example, fifth in the order, no substitution can be made to move him to fourth or sixth, or anywhere else. Any substitute for the DH, including pinch hitters and pinch runners are automatically considered to be the new DH, and the restrictions outlined above apply to them as well. These substitutes are listed in the boxscore as "Smith ph-dh" or "Smith pr-dh". This is how a number of AL pitchers end up with games as DH in their statistics: these are almost always the result of being used as a pinch-runner for the DH.
< Message edited by sposfan -- 8/24/2006 5:03:58 AM >
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