MLB admits umpires’ mistake cost the A’s a tying home run

Major League Baseball admitted what everyone knew, particularly A’s Manager Bob Melvin: The double hit by Oakland’s Adam Rosales in the top of the ninth inning against the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday night should have been ruled a home run after a review of video replays.

Unfortunately for the A’s, crew chief Angel Hernandez said that the video his umpires reviewed was inconclusive and the original ruling of a double would stand. The Indians held on for a 4-3 victory.

All this despite the fact that it appeared obvious that Rosales’ deep fly ball to left-center field had struck a railing above the wall and caromed back into play.

“By rule, the decision to reverse a call by use of instant replay is at the sole discretion of the crew chief,” said Joe Torre, an executive vice president for MLB. “In the opinion of Angel Hernandez, who was last night’s crew chief, there was not clear and convincing evidence to overturn the decision on the field. It was a judgment call, and as such, it stands as final.”

The plot actually thickens because talk radio was full of scenarios that the umpires might not have seen all the same replays that viewers of the game had seen. That doesn’t appear to be the case, though.

“Home and away broadcast feeds are available for all uses of instant replay, and they were available to the crew last night,” Torre said. “Given what we saw, we recognize that an improper call was made. Perfection is an impossible standard in any endeavor, but our goal is always to get the calls right. Earlier this morning, we began the process of speaking with the crew to thoroughly review all the circumstances surrounding last night’s decision.”

Cleveland finished off a four-game sweep of Oakland with a 9-2 victory on Thursday afternoon.

Melvin, who was ejected from the game Wednesday night for vehemently arguing that Rosales’ fly ball was clearly a home run, didn’t expect a replay of the game.

“No, I didn’t think there was any chance at that,” he said before Thursday’s game, “because there’d been calls before that have been missed and nothing’s happened because of it.”

ALSO:

Kiss Cam moment goes from bad to worse

Jarron Collins on his brother’s groundbreaking disclosure

Jerry ‘the King’ Lawler cleared to wrestle again after heart attack