CHICAGO—A.J. Pierzynski doesn’t have that many fans around the game, but the guy certainly knows what he’s doing.

As he stumbled backward while caught in a rundown in the 10th inning, sticking his left elbow out and catching Willy Aybar along the way, Pierzynski yelled “Obstruction!” Jason Bartlett, who tagged him a moment later, couldn’t believe it, and he expected second-base umpire Doug Eddings to have a similar reaction. Instead, Eddings called Aybar for interference and gave Pierzynski third base.

“I think everybody knows A.J. plays hard, but he also does little things like that, too,” said Bartlett. “It’s something that they’re going to see on tape after the game and probably notice they made the wrong call, but you can’t change anything now.”

Naturally, the umpires defended their call following the game. Ted Barrett, who was at third base today, spoke to a pool reporter about the play. This was his explanation:

“As a runner, you’re allowed to do that. What Doug ruled at second base was, even though A.J. did kind of stick his arm out to make contact, Aybar was still in his way, so A.J., if he would have turned, he wouldn’t have been able to continue on to third. So after making the throw, Aybar is no longer in the act of fielding and he can’t obstruct the runner, which is what Doug ruled happened. And in a rundown, even though A.J. was going back to second, the rule of obstruction during a rundown is he gets his next advanced base and that’s why he was rewarded third base.

“If Aybar’s got the ball, there’s no obstruction, You protect the fielder when he’s in the act of fielding. Once that ball’s released and out of his hand, he has to vacate.”

Aybar said through interpreter Dioner Navarro that the umpire told him he initiated the contact with Pierzynski, rather than the other way around.

Joe Maddon wasn’t nearly as hot after this one as he was when B.J. Upton got called out after turning toward second in that game last week, but he still made it clear he disagreed with the call.

“We didn’t do the rundown very well, I’ll give us that. Our rundown technique was not good,” said Maddon. “But nevertheless, he still should have been out.”