BOSTON — John Lackey is no stranger to first-pitch challenges.
Lackey, who saw his team challenge a play after his first pitch April 18, watched Sunday as the Oakland Athletics did the same thing. This time, A’s manager Bob Melvin challenged a bang-bang play at first base involving Coco Crisp.
Crisp grounded Lackey’s first pitch to the left side. The ball deflected off the glove of a diving Will Middlebrooks and over toward shortstop Xander Bogaerts. Bogaerts picked it up and fired to first base, where Mike Carp stretched to complete the out.
Melvin contested that Crisp beat the throw, but the umpires upheld their initial call after a review lasting approximately one minute, 35 seconds. The umps determined there wasn’t conclusive evidence to overturn the call on the field.
The April 18 incident involved Red Sox manager John Farrell challenging Orioles outfielder Nick Markakis’ double down the left field line. The umpires upheld that call, too, ruling that it wasn’t conclusive that the ball landed in foul territory.
Check out Sunday’s challenge in the video below.
