Yasiel Puig of the
Dodgers, hit a high chopper up the middle of the diamond. He clearly beat the throw to first base. The throw skipped past the first baseman, but the Twins catcher backed up the play. The film clearly shows that Puig stayed on the right side of the foul line all the way through his run past first base. His body never crossed the foul line toward second. However umpire Tim Welke called Puig
out after he made a phantom "lean" toward second base after an infield
single
Welke mistook Puig sharply turning his head to the right to check for
the ball's location as an attempt of the runner to advance to second base. It was evident from Puig's body language that Puig wanted
to take an extra base, but when saw Pinto with the ball, he applied the
brakes. If Puig's left shoulder began to dip toward second, the rest of
his body actually leaned right. He never left the baseline,
never crossed the foul line. He stopped, turned around clockwise (that's
away from second base), and started walking back to the bag like an
innocent man who just had hit an infield single.
Now, some believe that umpires are more sensitive to their calls because of instant replay. But here is a situation where the call was blatantly wrong, but nothing was done about it. The play was not reviewed, and the Dodgers first base coach did not put up an argument. Puig just stood there in shock until his coach told him to head to the dugout.
One could argue that if MLB is going to rely on replay technology to make its game better, there should be an instant "alert" to the crew chief from the league office or official scorer to correct a blatant missed call. Then have the crew chief review the play and make the correct call. Of course, replay itself is not perfect. At least twice this season, calls were reviewed during games and afterward, the umpires got the play wrong.
