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Dustin Pedroia: ‘Season isn’t over because an umpire missed a call’ 09.19.11 at 5:50 pm ET
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David Ortiz and the Sox were fuming after a fifth-inning call went against Boston. (AP)

The easy and obvious way to look at the fifth inning of Monday’s first game is to say it’s simply a microcosm of the disastrous month of September for the Red Sox.

They fall behind 6-1 only to make a mid-game rally, with several line drive hits off the bats of their most important batters. And then an umpire misses a crucial call that costs them a run that would’ve tied the game.

With two runs already in during a two-out rally and Dustin Pedroia standing on third, David Ortiz lined a frozen rope down the right field line. The ball caromed off the Scott’s lawn sign and rolled out to Nick Markakis. But first base umpire Mike Estabrook didn’t see it that way.

He saw the ball hitting just to the right of the foul line on the wall, taking away what would’ve been a run-scoring double to make it a one-run game. Instead, the Red Sox lost the run and the game, 6-5, falling to 4-14 in September and watching their wild-card lead dwindle to 1 1/2 games over the Rays.

“It’s just a break in the game, they got it, that’s basically it,” Pedroia said. “We’ve played a 100-whatever games and we’re not going to say our season is over because an umpire missed a call. We’re better than that. Yeah, it’s frustrating, another hit, it’s a big hit but it didn’t go our way.”

Terry Francona – after getting a signal from first base coach Ron Johnson that it was clearly fair – came out to protest and had no doubt it was fair, especially after seeing the replay.

“I know it was, by about a foot-and-a-half,” Francona said. “I know it’s a tough corner. They can’t get replay because it’s not a home run so I ask him, ‘Can you ask everybody?’”

That’s exactly what home plate umpire Mike Winters, second base ump Mark Wegner and third base ump Mike Everitt. No luck. The crew decided that no one had a good enough look to overrule.

“You hate to tell them that but the guys in the dugout, they’ve already seen it,” Francona said. “I’d like to get this call right. I wish they could’ve kept asking somebody else but they ran out of people to ask.”

Pedroia, who would’ve scored, thought it was fair, too.

“I was running down the line,” he said. “It looked fair. You can only replay it if it’s a home run so it was his call and he made it.”

It was Johnson who had the best look of all among those in Red Sox uniform.

“I knew the ball was fair,” Johnson told WEEI.com’s Alex Speier. “I was just watching the Pole. The ball was past the Pole, so I knew the ball was fair,” said Johnson. “To see right down that line I’d have to run down the line and almost look in fair territory to see it. So I just turned, looked, bam, looked at the Pole, ball goes by it. I saw the ball go by it. Then I was kind of baffled. I didn’t understand why there was a delay.

“[Eastabrook is] right on the line. He’s a good ump, too. I’ve known him for years. That really surprised me. Just from where I was, looking down the line, I didn’t think it was that difficult a call. I don’t get that one. When I turned to look, I didn’t even give it a thought that it wasn’t fair. I turned to Papi like, let’s go, and then when he threw his hands foul, I was like, ‘What?’”

Johnson suggested that the umpiring crew — which did not have access to video replay because it was not a question of whether the ball was or was not a home run — would feel similarly.

“If they’re looking at it now,” said Johnson, “they’re kicking themselves.”

“It’s huge,” added Jarrod Saltalamacchia. “This game is about momentum, especially at that point. We fought back and brought the game within two. David’s ball scores a run and we get another run later on and we’re still playing. But at the same, momentum, who knows what happens if they get the call right and David’s standing at third.”

“Nothing you can do in the second game but try to come back and hit the ball fair,” added Ortiz.

Read More: Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, David Ortiz, Mike Estabrook Print  |  Email  |  Bark It Up!  |  Digg It
  • Sportsbozo

    Umpires are all bought and paid for by the the mob! Same thing in football and Basketball what do you think this is about honesty??? That umpire shouldn’t have made the call without consulting with the video replay as it was a consequential play,all the technology in the world and we still allow some bum drawing a check from Guido Sarducci to make the call,just like Jim Joyce’s call that cost that kid the perfect game! Cut the crap lying umpires!!! I tell you if you can’t see it properly go consult the video,don’t just throw your hands up and say I think this is what happened,You suck Easterbrook and it was your crew which started this BS umpiring against the yankees and it’s continued with the s krew the Sox tone ever since! Just go ahead and raise your greasy paw and tell the truth or stand on the fith amendment like every other crook who claims he didn’t do it……..

  • YouScrewedBoston

    Let me reiterate: Red Sox lose by 1 run after a JOE TORRE YANKEE UMPIRE takes away a David Ortiz RBI double on a fair ball that would have scored 1 run.

    The Sox currently hold a tenuous 1 1/2 game lead over the Rays, and they may end up missing the playoffs by 1 or 2 games. This afternoon mattered, and was decided by a JOE TORRE UMPIRE.

    That is why, I implore you: If you are going to the game tonight, tomorrow night, Wednesday night, and all of 2012 should the Sox miss the playoffs by 1 game, LET THESE JOE TORRE YANKEE UMPIRES HEAR IT AT THE TOP OF YOUR LUNGS! EVERY CALL, EVERY PLAY, RISE UP AND LET YOUR VOICES BE HEARD!

    YOU SCREWED BOSTON! YOU SCREWED BOSTON! YOU SCREWED BOSTON! YOU SCREWED BOSTON!

  • MerrillFraz

    Well, let’s be fair…if not for the umpires giving the Rays batters a 3-foot wide strike zone, the Rays would have swept them Sox and been 1/2 game up by now…so gotta take your cake both ways.

  • Roy Tucker

    Why the f**k did he lift Atchison? And now he has Albers warming in the pen!??!

    Why won’t he use Wheeler????

  • Robert

    Time to take a bold step into the future beginning next year. Keep the men in blue where they are,each with a hand held computer that will guarantee accurate calls.Someone would be montering calls to make sure the umps are calling what the computer shows. By taking decisions away from humans, games are not tainted by imcompetent, bullheaded idiots with an ax to grind,and who think they are more important then the game. You would have a pure game of baseball where balls are balls and strikes are strikes,and foul line calls,catches and base calls are true. We have all seen lefthanders with stuff so good that the umpire can’t read it. We have all seen how each umpire has his own strike zone. This game of numbers deserves complete accuracy so that teams won’t get robbed of wins,and a players stats are exactly what they should be.The game would lose some of it’s charm by not having umps to hoot on,or the excitement of a good argument with a manager or player, but that is a trade off I could live with. Of course, this will never happen.

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  • Michael T

    OK, its Saturday……..let’s get down to it. personally, I want a blow out, a beat down, no mercy.
    Then I want the Giants, want them bad, I want points all over the place, I want Manning on his back. I want cold determination, no showy stuff, I want the Ravens and Giants to understand, to know in their hearts, that by halftime………….its over. That’s what I want….I know it’s asking a whole lot, but wouldn’t it be sweet?

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