The Boston Red Sox came out on the wrong end Sunday of a second debatable video review in as many days.
The umpires overturned what at first appeared to be an inning-ending double play in the fourth after New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi challenged the ruling on the field that Jonathan Herrera’s throw to Mike Napoli at first base had beaten Francisco Cervelli to the bag.
[mlbvideo id=”32071445″ width=”640″ height=”358″ /]
It was a bang-bang play, and an important one, as the decision to call Cervelli safe allowed the eventual game-winning run to score from third (the Yankees went on to win 3-2 to take three out of four from the Red Sox in the weekend series).
Red Sox skipper John Farrell was ejected for arguing the reversal, and he vented his frustration after the game with what has been a far-from-perfect replay system.
“We felt that it was clear that the replay was inconclusive,” Farrell told reporters via WEEI.com. “The frustrating part is when this was rolled out and explained to us, particularly on the throw received by the first baseman, we were instructed that when the ball enters the glove, not that it has to hit the back of the glove, is where the out is deemed complete. At the same time, any angle that we looked at, you couldn’t tell if the foot was on the bag behind Mike Napoli‘s leg. Where this became conclusive is a hard pill to swallow. On the heels of (Saturday), it’s hard to have any faith in the system, to be honest with you.”
The call came one day after Yankees infielder Dean Anna was called safe at second base despite video clearly showing that his foot had come off the bag while the tag was being applied.
