With one out and two on (R2, R3), Trout hit a fly ball to Astros right fielder Kyle Tucker, who threw home as Angles baserunner R3 Tyler Wade tagged from third base and attempted to score.
As Tucker's throw arrived into catcher Martin Maldonado's mitt at home plate, Wade slid headfirst in an attempt to avoid the tag while still being able to touch the foul-most corner of the plate.
In this Teachable Moment, tmac works us through Wills' positioning at the dish and how taking a few steps to his right, staying on catcher Maldonado's action-side hip (e.g., the left hip closest to the runner) enabled Wills to gain a keyhole angle to not only see the tag/no tag part of the play, but also to best judge whether runner Wade touched home plate or not as well as any potential plate blocking violation or other home plate collision rule issue that might have arisen.
With Wills ruling that the runner missed the plate touch, Wills patiently signaled nothing, refraining from ruling the runner out until the catcher tagged the runner just beyond the dirt area behind home plate. For the rules aficionados out there, this is an appeal play, as in OBR 5.09(c), for a missed base touch (R3 Wade never made an attempt to go back and touch home plate, believing he had touched it his first time by), for had Maldonado thrown to third base instead (to make a play on trailing runner R2 Shohei Ohtani), assuming Ohtani would have been safe, and the Astros never made a play on R3 Wade (or home plate itself), the run would have scored.
Alternate Link: Willis Wills waits at home for catcher's tag to rule runner out (CCS)
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