There’s No Need to Replay This Issue

As bad as Doug Eddings’ call was in Game 2, it doesn’t mean baseball needs instant replay. That’s because the game already has a correctional mechanism, the makeup chances that always have been a part of the sport.

Eddings’ mistake -- when he ruled Angel catcher Josh Paul hadn’t caught the swinging strike three by Chicago’s A.J. Pierzynski and allowed Pierzynski to run safely to first base while the Angels ran off the field after Eddings’ raised-fist motion -- wasn’t why the Angels lost to the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday night. A stolen base without a throw and an easily hittable, 0-and-2 pitch that was drilled off the left-field wall by Joe Crede beat the Angels. If the scoring guidelines tell us you can’t assume a double play, why do people always assume an alternate course of history?

Lost amid all of the debate about the blown call was this honest assessment by Angel Manager Mike Scioscia: “We didn’t play well enough to win that game.”

And ultimately games and series go to those who deserve them. Was it fair that the Angels didn’t get another at-bat? Yes, because the White Sox earned home-field advantage by finishing with the best record in the league.

And here’s a note so buried amid by the controversy that not even the seamheads are discussing it: Mark Buehrle’s complete game was the first by an American League pitcher in the postseason since Roger Clemens did it for the New York Yankees in a 5-0 victory over Seattle in Game 4 of the 2000 championship series. Don’t nine innings of good pitching outweigh one bad call?

There are enough outs, innings, games and years to allow everything to balance everything. The bad call didn’t cost the Angels the series. The best they could have hoped for in their two games in Chicago was a split. No one gave the Angels a chance to win Game 1 after they’d flown all night to land in their third time zone for the third game in three days. But they did. And now they still have a chance to win the series without returning to Chicago.

The important thing is, the Angels can control what happens. Not the umpires, not baseball, not television executives. The players and manager.

But don’t let that stop all the wailing. We’ve already heard the evocation of Don Denkinger, whose blown call in Game 6 of the 1985 World Series is said to have cost the St. Louis Cardinals the championship.

Except it didn’t. First of all, there didn’t have to be a Game 6 because the Cardinals had a 3-1 lead in the series and could have wrapped it up at home in the fifth game.

But they lost and had to cross the state to Kansas City, where they had a 1-0 lead over the Royals in the bottom of the ninth when Denkinger called Jorge Orta safe when he clearly was out on a grounder fielded by first baseman Jack Clark and tossed to pitcher Todd Worrell covering the bag.

The Cardinals, though, did themselves in with a misplayed pop-up and a passed ball, which moved the winning runs into scoring position for a two-run, game-winning hit by Dane Iorg.

And the Cardinals still had another shot in Game 7 and couldn’t get it done. So let Denkinger off the hook. Bill Buckner’s croquet play for the Boston Red Sox was in a Game 6. So was Steve Bartman’s Cub misadventure. They didn’t decide series.

One other thing about Denkinger’s call in the 1985 World Series: It was in the 1985 World Series. We’re talking 20 years ago. The fact that we haven’t had an umpiring controversy of this magnitude since the days of Starter jackets and “Weird Science” should tell you something. It tells me I’m getting old, but it should tell you that the umps, by and large, get it right.

That’s why instant replay -- a topic Fox analyst Tim McCarver mentioned in anticipation of the brouhaha over Eddings’ call -- isn’t an option.

Either we subject every ball and strike to review from the booth or we don’t have it at all.

Normally a consultation among the umpires on the field is enough to get things right. In Game 6 of last year’s American League championship series, the umpires initially ruled Alex Rodriguez safe when he knocked the ball out of Bronson Arroyo’s hand. Then they conferred and properly called him out, under the obscure Rule 18.09 (c): there’s no limp-wristed slapping in baseball.

Eddings even checked with another umpire Wednesday night before delivering his final verdict that Pierzynski was safe. In this case, they got it wrong. Even after watching replays after the game, they got it wrong.

And as much as we admire their willingness to face the media for questions after the debacle, they got that wrong too.

Eddings looked dazed and uncertain and didn’t present a convincing case. For example, when asked whether he’d seen a replay and stood by his call, he replied:

“Well, I’m not sure, the gentleman who said that they ... yes I do. We saw it on a couple different angles. If you watch it, um, the ball changes direction. So I don’t see how you guys can say it’s clearly, um, a caught ball.”

There’s nothing Bud Selig can do to rectify Wednesday’s mistake. Even if he ruled that the inning really ended on the third strike to Pierzynski and the teams should resume in the top of the 10th, there’s no way to replicate the conditions and the pitchers’ availability that existed in that moment.

What he can do is ban this umpiring crew for the rest of the series so there won’t be any lingering resentment or residual effects.

The Angels are entitled to a fresh start. But that doesn’t mean they’re entitled to any makeup calls. It doesn’t mean they’re entitled to a trip to the World Series.

That will go to the team that deserves it -- just as it always has in baseball.

*

J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.