NEW YORK (AP) -The banged-up New York Mets suddenly have a new asset: video replay.
Fernando Tatis, Omir Santos, Gary Sheffield and, after Wednesday night, Daniel Murphy, have all benefited from the umpire’s call to “review it!”
Murphy’s double-turned-homer against Washington gave the Mets a remarkable run of four games in five days in which the team has been involved in a replay. Throw in another review in April and New York has played a part in five of the 13 calls that required further examination. No other team has been in more than two.
And all five calls have gone the Mets way. Two were reversals and three were late-game homers that gave New York a lead.
“We’ve been getting some instant replays – and so far, so good,” said Mets ace Johan Santana, who was helped out by Murphy’s tiebreaking two-run shot against the Nationals on Wednesday night.
an give umpires fits.
It started in Boston on Saturday night at Fenway Park. With the Red Sox leading 2-1 in the ninth, Santos smacked a drive off closer Jonathan Papelbon that appeared to hit the top of the Green Monster in left field. It was ruled a double, but the TV replay showed that the ball bounced first off a ledge – similarly colored to the Wall – behind the 37-foot wall.
“I felt like I was waiting for an hour after that,” Santos said of the delay of several minutes.
Ruling: home run, and the Mets had a 3-2 lead that held up.
“Cut and dry,” crew chief Joe West told a pool reporter. “We got together as a crew, got the play right, and that was it.”
A day later, Boston’s Kevin Youkilis hit a fly toward the left-field pole in the fifth inning. Called foul, Youkilis waited near second base while the umpires went to check if their call was correct or was it a homer. After a brief delay, West upheld the call.
The Mets returned to their new home Monday. Unlike the no-frills symmetry of Shea Stadium, the outfield wall at Citi Field changes height seven times and zigs and zags from the left- to right-field foul lines, making it an adventure for outfielders playing the caroms.
One of the more troublesome aspects – for the umpires – is in left field, where a dark green railing rises above the orange border that rims the outfield wall.
, and a fan reached out and touched the ball. Was it a tiebreaking three-run homer or an RBI double? Originally called a homer, it wasn’t until 6 minutes later that crew chief Larry Vanover twirled his finger in the air to signal homer, the ruling was correct, helping give the Mets a 5-2 victory over the Nats.
A long ball by Fernando Tatis against Florida on April 29 was similarly caught in a tangle of fan hands and the railing. Video review upheld that tiebreaking homer, too.
Murphy came up with a runner on in the sixth and the score 3-all Wednesday. He hit a shot to right that appeared to nick a yellow advertisement on the facade of the second deck, which hangs 8 feet over the field.
The ball landed on the warning track and was initially ruled in play. Nationals outfielder Adam Dunn started a relay that nailed Sheffield at the plate. Murphy moved to third on the throw.
Four minutes after the umpires trotted off the field, they returned and Vanover overturned the first call and Murphy had a 90-foot home run trot.
“When you look at the ball, it does disappear, and then it changed direction,” Vanover said. “We looked at everything they had. We have a room here. We get on the phone with the technician. They have all of the different feeds coming in and we can see them all.”
The Nationals had a very different opinion, including manager Manny Acta.
at hangs out over the warning track, the upper deck,” Acta said. “There is no explanation for that ball hitting the upper deck, coming down and then bouncing forward again.”
Of course there might be another explanation for the Mets replay run: karmic payback.
The Mets were hurt twice by the lack of instant replay early last season, first on a drive by Carlos Beltran in Florida, then one by Carlos Delgado against the Yankees.
Delgado’s shot, which came during a nationally televised, Sunday night game, was originally called a homer before being ruled foul. It ended up as the first of a spate of controversial plays that spurred baseball to put replay into effect late last season.
“This game is a weird game,” Sheffield said. “They seem to be going our way.”
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