Dave Martinez Accuses Elly De La Cruz of Illegal Bat, De La Cruz Gets Revenge - What The Rules Say

Nationals manager Dave Martinez accused Reds 3B Elly De La Cruz of an illegal bat in the 2nd inning, spurring Crew Chief Adrian Johnson's call to Replay HQ and HP Umpire Quinn Wolcott's order to remove a data device. De La Cruz got revenge later on with a home run. Here's the rule. Article: https://www.closecallsports.com/2023/...

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Although Official Baseball Rule 3.02 describes a legal bat (and what alterations potentially could make it illegal), OBR 6.03(a)(5) concerning batter illegal action is the meat of the illegal bat issue.

It delineates what exactly makes a bat illegal—namely, that it has been "altered or tampered with in such a way to improve the distance factor or cause an unusual reaction on the baseball. This includes bats that are filled, flat-surfaced, nailed, hollowed, grooved or covered with a substance such as paraffin, wax."

De La Cruz appeared to have a Blast Cap data collection device on the knob of his bat, which is used to collect statistics information—the sabermetric measures like bat speed that we've come to expect from baseball.

Martinez wasn't having any of it and had umpires order it removed in the 2nd inning, resulting in a De La Cruz strikeout.

In the 5th though, De La Cruz returned to the plate with the Blast Cap back on his bat knob...knowing full well that pursuant to OBR 6.03(a)(5) and the corresponding umpire manual Interpretation, Martinez was unable to request another illegal bat inspection for the remainder of the game.