Tag… Yerrrr Out!!!
Here’s the lowdown from the Associated Press:
On third after a pinch-hit triple in the seventh, Ichiro Suzuki took off on an infield grounder, stopped and then kept going when catcher Travis d’Arnaud reached for a wide throw.
Suzuki and d’Arnaud both made headfirst dives — Suzuki missed the plate by an inch and d’Arnaud missed him. Suzuki lunged with his hand and beat the tag by a split-second.
Originally called out, Suzuki was ruled safe after a replay review that took 5 minutes, 44 seconds.
“I was supposed to go on contact, so I went. When I realized how hard the ball was hit I knew I had no chance at home, so I stopped. When I saw it was a bad throw I went,” Suzuki said through a translator.
Suzuki tied it at 5.
“I’d say they got the play right,” d’Arnaud said.
Thoughts from Joe D.
Did they get it right? I wonder… My guess is that they totally botched it and I’ll explain why.
From the beginning when Marlins manager Mike Redmond challenged the play until home plate umpire Eric Cooper announced that the call had been reversed, over 5 minutes had transpired. What were they deliberating in all that time?
For them to reverse the ruling on the field, there must be clear and convincing evidence that the umpire’s call was wrong. That’s the official rule.
If there was anything even remotely convincing to reverse this call, it would have been ruled on in less than two minutes, not almost six.
It’s obvious they must have reviewed the same video we saw at least a dozen times which to me suggests there was no obvious reason to overturn it. There could have been another angle we weren’t privy to, but if it was obvious and convincing then why the long deliberation time?
Thank God it didn’t matter as the Mets won by two, but if the Mets had lost this game to the Marlins because of this egregious outcome, how pissed would all of you have been?
Sorry, Travis… They didn’t get it right…
