Mariners' France & Rays' Paredes Collide - Was it Interference or Obstruction?

With Mariners baserunner Ty France on second base, batter Teoscar Hernandez hit a ground ball between third base and shortstop. Rays third baseman Isaac Paredes charged in to field the ball, but instead collided with Seattle baserunner R2 France, resulting in both players falling to the ground and the ball rolling into shallow left field, where it was retrieved by Tampa Bay's shortstop Wander Franco.

3B Umpire Chris Guccione called "Time" and signaled R2 France out for interference—until the crew got together and reversed course to obstruction, awarding France third base. Let's review the rulebook.

Official Baseball Rule 5.09(b)(3) pertaining to interference states, "Any runner is out when they intentionally interfere with a thrown ball; or hinder a fielder attempting to make a play on a batted ball."

OBR's definition of obstruction is "the act of a fielder who, while not in possession of the ball and not in the act of fielding the ball, impedes the progress of any runner."

Thus, we can form a rudimentary system for this type of play based on the timeline of events—namely, when the ball is still a batted ball vs when it is not a batted ball.

Batter hits ball: Fielder has right of way and responsibility to avoid belongs to runner

Penalty for runner's infraction (impeding the fielder): Interference

Fielder no longer in act of fielding: Runner has right of way and responsibility to avoid belongs to fielder

Penalty for fielder's infraction (impeding the runner): Obstruction

Here, we see that fielder Paredes appeared to have already attempted to field, and missed, the ball such that Paredes was no longer in the act of fielding when the impeding act (the collision) occurred. Therefore, this is obstruction—type b (or type 2) as there was no play actively being made on the runner at the time of the obstruction, the penalty for which was to do precisely what the umpires did to nullify the act in awarding obstructed runner France the base he would have achieved had obstruction not occurred (third base). Of course, the even more correct call would have been to have called it live (and thus, kept play alive), but the outcome and runner placement of first and third base seemed proper.

Video as follows:

Alternate Link: Ty France and Isaac Paredes collide - is it interference, obstruction, or a legal play?