Update on Sonnanstine/Longoria situation

OK, so here’s what actually happened:

Joe Maddon listed both Evan Longoria and Ben Zobrist as 3Bs for the day, even though he was intending on having Longoria play as a designated hitter. Eric Wedge, that old rascal, waited for Zobrist to take the field before he raised his objection, denying Maddon the ability to fix his lineup card in the most desirable way (losing Zobrist, keeping Longoria). American League rules require the manager to forfeit their DH slot if they switch in a postition player (meaning that double-switches for AL teams turn them into NL teams for the duration of the game). Since Longoria wasn’t the player on the field, it was his slot that had to be adjusted to get the pitcher in the lineup. Sonnanstine was technically pinch-hitting for Longoria, so that was why Longoria was unavailable.

As it turned out, Sonnanstine hit a double, so Maddon did not end up paying for his mistake.

Sonnanstine batting 3rd, Tampa without a DH

I’ll post more about this later, but it looks like Joe Maddon screwed up on his lineup card and listed both Ben Zobrist and Evan Longoria at 3B. The consequences of this are that he forfeited his designated hitter slot, and had to put Sonnanstine in the three-hole in place of Longoria. I’m still not sure why he didn’t bench Zobrist rather than Longoria, but we’ll see. We’ll get the update, and I’ll be sure to comment on Maddon’s general strategic ineptitude.