Close calls turn out bad
Santana’s three-run HR in 10th ruled fair after an inconclusive review
Opposing teams have beat up on the poor Pirates this season.
On Tuesday, technology took its turn.
The Pirates came out on the wrong end of a pair of controversial calls in the late innings, and the final one turned out to be a real punch to the gut: a 10th Carlos Santana home run that looked a lot like a foul ball producing a 6-3 Indians victory at
PNC Park.
Santana’s 442-foot shot at first appeared to sail over the left-field foul pole, but subsequent video showed an angle from a rightfield camera where the ball actually disappeared behind the pole.
It appears that MLB may not have seen that angle.
“That’s definitely a hard way to go down, no doubt about it,” Kevin Newman said. “We gotta put it past us, come back [Wednesday] and really fight to get back in the win column, for sure.”
It’s important to note that it was called a home run on the field, meaning some serious evidence would be required to overturn the call. According to manager Derek Shelton, who
said he believed the ball was foul, nobody saw enough to call the ball foul.
“I thought it was foul,” Shelton said. “They called it fair on the field. With the replay, they confirmed it or it stood. But from our angle, we thought it was a foul ball.”
It’s an unfortunate reality for these Pirates (4-15) right now. Sure, they’ve shown an ability to rally late in games. It’s admirable. But they’ve been unable to nudge the ball completely over the line.
“It’s definitely frustrating,” Derek Holland said. “There’s no doubt about that. But the thing that you’ve got to take away is, look at the positives of what you’re doing. We’re continuing to fight every time that we go out there.
“We’ve got a lot of young talent. They’re plugging away. They’re trying to do everything they can to learn from what they’re doing and make those adjustments.”
It looked like the Pirates had a chance to win it in the bottom of the ninth, with two on and none out after the Indians bungled Jacob Stallings’ bunt attempt. But Jarrod Dyson was picked off of second base on a close play, eliminating the possibility of him scoring when Newman singled with two outs.
Replays showed Dyson’s hand getting blocked by shortstop Francisco Lindor’s spike, though the Pirates thought Dyson snuck around the back. Josh Bell would strike out to force extra innings.
“We had his back hand getting on the bag,” Shelton said. “I know Lindor’s foot was in front of the bag for the first hand. We thought on the back side that he got his hand on the bag.”
It’s a shame for the Pirates because other than the first (JT Brubaker) and last (Howard) pitchers of the game, their bullpen did a solid job. Those middle five guys combined for six scoreless innings with one walk and eight strikeouts.
Two of those came from Holland, who made a surprise relief appearance. Shelton said they wanted to get him some extra work before a weekend start against the Brewers.
The Pirates grabbed a 10 lead in the first inning when Colin Moran picked up his team-high 10th RBI of the season with a twoout single through the shift on the right side.
The hit scored Newman, who doubled to left with one out to extend his hitting streak to seven games. After a 3-for-4 night, Newman is hitting .414 (12-for-29) during that stretch.
“Nothing has changed, really,” Newman said. “Just more balls falling. Same approach. Same swing. I think a lot of guys started off slow this year.”
Cleveland surged ahead, 3-1, behind a tworun single from Santana and a sacrifice fly from Franmil Reyes in the third, but the Pirates tied the score with an opportunistic fifth inning.
Adam Frazier singled with one out, Newman walked, and they both moved up 90 feet on a wild pitch from Carrasco. Bell followed by driving a low changeup to the gap in right-center field for a tworun double, tying the score at 3.
It was another so-so outing from Brubaker, who performed similarly in his first MLB start Aug. 6 against the Twins. In both games, Brubaker allowed three runs over three innings and did not enjoy a single 1-2-3 inning.
Of course, Pirates pitchers also had to work around a few miscues, as this certainly wasn’t Pittsburgh’s cleanest game of the season. Frazier made an error and failed to handle a throw from Dyson in center, costing the Pirates an out.
Gonzalez had a wild throw in the fourth, both teams had poorly executed bunts, and Moran was thrown out at second base when he didn’t realize that Bryan Reynolds’ pop fly had dropped.