A lot of cranky baseball fans will tell you replay is ruining America’s pastime.
Alex Cora can’t relate.
Replay was influential in the Boston Red Sox’s much-needed victory over the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday. With the clubs tied at three in the eighth inning at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, Marcus Semien laced a two-out single off Matt Barnes, stole second and advanced to third on an errant throw by Blake Swihart. Ramon Laureano followed with a dribbler to the left side that appeared to put the A’s ahead after Brock Holt’s off-balance throw from short initially was deemed late.
Not so fast.
Cora and the Red Sox elected to challenge the play, and upon further review, the umpires reversed the call, which kept the score deadlocked heading into the ninth. Boston rode the momentum from there, scoring three in the final frame to halt its losing streak at four games.
Spoiler Alert: That’s an out. pic.twitter.com/259s68LNXW
— Red Sox (@RedSox) April 4, 2019
Had replay not been at Cora’s disposal, it sounds like the Sox skipper would have hit the showers early.
“I mean, if there’s no replay I get thrown out of the game,” Cora said, per the Boston Herald’s Jason Mastrodonato. “If it was before replay I get thrown out of the game. We were pretty sure he was out.
“Brock made a great play. That was unreal. That was a great play.”
Cora isn’t one to let frustration get the best of him. Aside from his confidence that Holt made the play, Cora’s comments seem to shed light on how important that game was for the Red Sox. Another demoralizing loss, which would have dropped Boston to 1-6 on the season, could have taken a toll.
The Sox aim to split their four-game set with the A’s on Thursday afternoon when the sides meet for the series finale in Oakland.
