BOSTON — Red Sox starter Jake Peavy was visibly frustrated following Boston’s 2-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays in the first game of Thursday’s doubleheader at Fenway Park.
Peavy, who lasted 6 1/3 innings while suffering his first loss of 2014, couldn’t understand why the umpires failed to overturn a call in the seventh inning in which the Red Sox would have tied the score at two apiece.
“We don’t seem to be getting any calls. It’s extremely frustrating,” Peavy said of the video review process. “Like I said, I don’t know what’s going to happen, but something clearly needs to happen.”
Peavy wasn’t the only member of the Red Sox upset by what transpired in the seventh inning of Thursday’s first game, when second baseman Dustin Pedroia was thrown out at home while trying to score from first base on David Ortiz’s one-out double. Manager John Farrell called for a challenge, at which point the umpires upheld the initial call because there wasn’t enough evidence to overturn it, and third base coach Brian Butterfield was ejected for disputing the ruling.
Farrell said after the game he thought there was enough visual evidence to prove Pedroia touched the plate ahead of catcher Jose Molina’s tag. Peavy, who surrendered two runs on three hits and five walks in the losing effort, couldn’t help but express his displeasure with the way Major League Baseball’s new replay system has worked so far.
“I guess (plays) can’t be close. If it’s close, they seem to stick to the call,” Peavy said. “It’s hard for me to talk right now without absolutely going off with as many times as it happened. … These (calls) are deciding ballgames. It’s extremely frustrating. We as a whole, MLB, we’ve got to get our act together because this is a joke. It’s embarrassing. For fans and everybody to see, of course (Pedroia) touched the plate. He slid dirt over the top of the plate and got tagged after the fact. That stinks.”
It certainly appeared from the replay that Pedroia’s foot slid in ahead of Molina’s tag, although it’s difficult to determine whether his foot grazed the plate or lifted above it as his leg slid across. Either way, there’s no convincing Peavy that Pedroia was out.
“It’s extremely frustrating when that decides ballgames and we agreed to replay to get the calls right,” Peavy said. “That’s the reason we agreed for (expanded) to happen. … I don’t know want to hear anybody’s explanation. I know what I see. You can’t talk me into anything different. You see what you see. Dustin Pedroia was clearly safe, albeit close, but clearly safe. I don’t know what else to say.”
Peavy said he favored the implementation of expanded replay this season and just wants to hear reasonable explanations for why certain controversial calls are made despite video evidence showing something different.
As for what MLB can do to improve replay?
“Get the call right,” Peavy said. “That’s what we could do. I don’t know if we’re trying to protect people. I don’t know what we’re doing. Get the call right. That’s why I thought it was in place.”
