Most of the time, umpire error has minor significance on the outcome of an MLB game. This is not once of those instances.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, the Red Sox and Tigers were all knotted up at 4-4. Avisail Garcia led off the inning by skying a fly ball deep to right field. Daniel Nava camped under it and pulled the ball in basket style. As he was taking the baseball out of his glove, the ball dropped to the ground.
The second base umpire, Mike DiMuro — not the first base umpire, who should have been making the call — ruled it a drop and an error as Garcia took second base. Nava came running in to debate the call until Red Sox manager John Farrell took over. The umpires met to discuss the call and chose not to overturn it. That’s when things became more heated between Farrell and DiMuro and the manager was subsequently ejected from the game.
Garcia came around to score, putting the Tigers ahead just three batters later on a sacrifice fly by Torii Hunter. Detroit would go on to score two more runs in the inning. Boston could muster just one run in the top of the ninth to go on to lose 7-5.
Check out the call and aftermath in the video below.
