Officials should be red in face over review
Astros ‘pissed off’ after sure homer was ruled an out
Of course Josh Reddick was ticked off. Ticked at the a critical play in a controversially classic Game 4 of the ALCS against the Boston Red Sox, ticked at a blown call that helped define it and royally ticked that Major League Baseball doesn’t have the proper mechanisms in place to get it right. “I’m pissed off; we’re all pissed off,” the Astros outfielder said after Jose Altuve’s home run that wasn’t in a gut-wrenching 8-6 loss Wednesday that ultimately put their World Series defence in peril. “Frustration and beyond that, to being pissed off because it would have made a big difference.” Quick rewind to the play in question in the bottom of the first: Altuve hit an opposite-field shot that cleared the wall in right and Boston’s Mookie Betts leaped to catch it. Instead of a spectacular play, however, a fan got in the way and Betts wasn’t able to make the catch. By the rule book: a clear home run. By the ruling of umpire Joe West, who lumbered down the right-field line to make the call: fan interference and an out. While the subsequent review built a fairly substantive case that Betts had reached beyond the field of play, thus negating the fan interference, review officials in New York ruled there was nothing definitive. And therein lies the problem of a crucial play in a critical game and an argument put forth by Reddick and other peeved Astros players and officials. If baseball is going to rely on video review as regularly as it does, it’s time to provide the tools to do so properly, especially in massively important situations. You can argue that baseball does a poorer job at this than any of the other big pro sports leagues that employ video review. The NHL usually has a more definitive view, ditto the NFL unless it’s the fifth regional broadcast on Fox and camera angles are limited. Baseball is hit and miss, however, and it shouldn’t be, especially when a berth in the World Series is on the line. “If you don’t have perfect camera angles, I think we have to do something,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said before Thursday’s potential Red Sox clincher. “I never went to umpire school and I’ve never asked the question. I imagine this winter when we get to the winter meetings and the manager meetings, I should probably raise my hand.” He won’t be the only one.
OUTFIELD OF DREAMS
We are most familiar with the Red Sox outfield corps prowling the quirky confines of Fenway Park and doing it rather successfully. But the group of Andrew Benintendi in left, Jackie Bradley Jr. in centre and Betts has had a profound effect on the road as well in the ALCS. Obviously Betts was involved in the critical first-inning call, but he also made a couple of outstanding efforts with the ball in play, including a bullet throw to second to gun down Tony Kemp when the Astros were attempting to launch a rally in the eighth. Benintendi, meanwhile, was the showstopper when he made a diving catch to end the game in the ninth, a bases-loaded Alex Bregman rocket that might have won the game for the Astros. “We do feel that we have the best outfield in the big leagues,” Boston manager Alex Cora said. “It’s October baseball and with the type of teams we have, you give them more than 27 outs, they’re going to take advantage of it.”
TALKING JAYS
Astros bench coach Joe Espada, a leading candidate to replace fired Blue Jays manager John Gibbons, confirmed Toronto management has approached him for an in-person interview. As previously reported, that puts Espada on the short list of about five candidates. Espada is also being considered by at least two of the five other teams looking for a new manager. He said his initial interview with Jays general manager Ross Atkins and others went well. Meanwhile, former Toronto Sun baseball columnist Bob Elliott reported former Jays third baseman Ed Sprague, currently co-ordinator of instruction with the Oakland Athletics, was also interviewed for the job.