Major League Baseball has a replay review center. It is located in New York City. The Yankees, the league’s biggest brand, are also located in New York City. Those same Yankees played a game against the Boston Red Sox today, with serious playoff implications. The winner of today’s game would own the head-to-head tiebreaker in the standings. With the Red Sox trailing in the standings, that tiebreaker is very important to potentially host a playoff series.
Let’s fast forward to the 5th inning. With a runner on first base, Jazz Chisholm hit a soft fly ball to center field. Ceddanne Rafaela made a diving catch and threw to first to double off the runner at first. Unfortunately, the umpire saw things differently and ruled that the ball hit the ground. Fortunately, for situations like this, where the umpire gets the call incorrect on the field, a team has the ability to challenge that call. The Red Sox did that, and the people in the replay review center in New York City, the same city as the New York Yankees, the team that is propped up by the league time and time again, were asked to review the play and make the correct call.
For some reason, despite video of the ball landing in his glove before touching the ground, the replay review people determined that the call on the field was acceptable, and the inning continued. Paul Goldschmidt singled up the middle, and Heliot Ramos hit a three-run home run a few batters later. That was (more or less) the game.
I’m not suggesting that the league has a bias towards the Yankees. If I were to do that, I would point out a recent replay review decision where Pete Alonso’s home run was ruled foul. I’d also point out this other replay decision, where Spencer Jones’ home run call stood. I’d also call out that the Yankees almost always rank highly in catcher framing runs, a statistic that measures how often the umpire is wrong about a call. You could say that coaching is a factor, but a person who was suspicious of the umpires would wonder why someone like Austin Romine or Kyle Higashioka immediately became a worse framer after leaving the organization. Again, I don’t believe there’s a Yankee bias. Yeah, they’re so popular that Alex Rodriguez and Michael Kay had their own alternate broadcast on ESPN, and they would cut into college football games to watch Aaron Judge chase a fake home run record, but that’s no reason to believe they’d get preferential treatment.
The Red Sox didn’t play well enough to win on Sunday. Yes, the controversial call in the fifth inning had a major impact on the game, but despite that, the offense never put anything together. They struck out seven times and only drew one walk. They had runners on first and second with one out in the first inning, but failed to advance them. After that, they only reached second base two other times.
Ranger Suarez was okay up until the fifth, but wasn’t his best self. He only induced eight chases and five whiffs. He couldn’t find a way to put Heliot Ramos away on multiple occasions, most notably before allowing a three-run home run to blow the game open.
The Red Sox clawed one run back in the top of the eighth, but Jovani Moran couldn’t keep the score where it was, and then Andruw Monasterio was called on to save some arms. He couldn’t throw strikes, and the strikes he did throw were hammered. The Yankees won the game 16-1, and the season series 7-6. If things are all square at the end of the season, the Red Sox will travel to Yankee Stadium for the Wild Card series once again.
Ranger Suarez (5.1 IP, 6 ER)
Jovani Moran (1.1 IP, 5 ER)
For some reason, the guy insisted on calling things tight with Monasterio on the mound. Really bizarre umpiring.
