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Why Dodgers manager Don Mattingly is fed up with baseball’s review system

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Frustrated. Really, really frustrated. Seemingly growing more so by the game.

Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly is confident the source of his frustration will ultimately be addressed, but for now Major League Baseball’s review system leaves him wanting to scream into the night. Or possibly at umpires.

It happened again Wednesday night, Mattingly confident the umpire’s call that Miami right fielder Giancarlo Stanton had caught Howie Kendrick’s sinking liner would be reversed upon review, and the play ruled a trap.

“They showed it on the big screen and you see it bounce, and you just know it’s going to get overturned,” Mattingly said. “And then it doesn’t. It’s frustrating.”

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Mattingly thinks there is a basic flaw with the replay system, now in just its second year. Mattingly believes that when a manager challenges a call and the play is reviewed back in New York, officials should not be informed of the call on the field.

“I think they have to take the human element out of it and make a blind call, yes or no, safe or out,” he said. “They don’t know what the call is. They don’t know if it’s overturned.

“There shouldn’t be a stand or overturned. Just go look at it point blank. Safe or out. They don’t need to know anything about the play in general, just need to see the play. It’s pretty simple.”

New York took over three minutes to review the fourth-inning play before saying the call would stand. An irritated Mattingly took his cap off and threw it to the dugout floor, which earned him an ejection.

The Dodgers ultimately lost Wednesday’s game, 5-4. If Kendrick had been awarded a hit, he would have scored later in the inning when Alex Guerrero tripled.

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Mattingly sighed during his postgame press conference. He didn’t really want to review the play, but just couldn’t help himself.

“It’s not worth talking about,” he said. “It did cost us a run in a one-run game. So obviously that’s frustrating.”

Mattingly said he’s hardly alone with his frustration over the review process.

“Not enough evidence,” he said. “It’s just wrong. It’ll get fixed.

“You see it with guys all over the league, the frustration over the calls.”

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