Rays
World Series Umpires Admit To Another Blown Call
TBO.com
The Associated Press
Published: October 28, 2008
PHILADELPHIA - Umpires have acknowledged missing two key calls in the World Series.The Associated Press
Published: October 28, 2008
The Philadelphia Phillies scored in the first inning of Game 4 on Sunday night after Jimmy Rollins scampered safely back to third during a rundown. But television replays showed he was tagged on the backside by Tampa Bay's Evan Longoria and should have been called out by third base ump Tim Welke.
"He's seen the replay. He knows he missed it," Mike Port, Major League Baseball's vice president for umpiring, said Monday.
Longoria swiped his arm in frustration after Rollins was called safe, and Rays manager Joe Maddon came out for a brief argument.
"I just saw him swing and miss. I never saw a tag," Welke explained after Sunday night's game. "That's a swipe tag. A lot of times on a swipe tag, the glove will pause. I saw him try to make a swipe tag but I never saw the glove pause."
Rollins wound up scoring when Pat Burrell drew a bases-loaded walk from Andy Sonnanstine, and the Phillies went on to a 10-2 victory that gave them a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven Series.
It was the Rays who got a break in Game 3, when speedy Carl Crawford was called safe by first base umpire Tom Hallion on a seventh-inning bunt single. Replays showed Jamie Moyer's glove flip to first baseman Ryan Howard beat Crawford on a close play.
"Bang-bang play, and I tried to get the best angle on it," Hallion told a pool reporter. "I really didn't get a sound to be able to judge. It winds up being a great play. And looking at a replay here, they just got him."
Crawford scored as part of a two-run rally and Tampa Bay tied it later, but Philadelphia won, 5-4.
There were a couple of disputed calls during the first two games at Tampa Bay, too. Maddon screamed for a balk on Cole Hamels when he picked off a runner in the opener, and Rocco Baldelli drew a key walk on a checked swing in Game 2 that the Phillies thought had been called strike three.
And then there is the strike zone. Fox and its announcing team of Joe Buck and Tim McCarver have also pointed out several inconsistencies throughout the series.
Moyer seemed to benefit from Fieldin Culbreth's calls behind the plate in Game 3, when Fox's tracking system registered several pitches out of the strike zone that went in the Phillies' favor.
In Game 5, the tracking system showed that Rays starter Scott Kazmir received at least three ball calls from Jeff Kellogg that looked to be strikes. Two to Pat Burrell, with two strikes, in the fifth inning led to Kazmir's sixth walk, and he was pulled thereafter. In the previous inning, the Rays' Akinori Iwamura struck out on a pitch that appeared several inches out of the strike zone.
This is the first postseason in which baseball is using replay-though only to review home run calls.
Information from TBO.com was used in this report.