Finally Back on the Field, Athletics Find Replay Calls are the Same as Ever
Replay calls have not been the A’s friend this year, and taking almost a week off from baseball has not changed that.
Back on the field for the first time since Saturday after having four games postponed when pitcher Daniel Mengden having tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus, the A’s played half a good game before a four-run fifth inning from San Diego led the Padres to a 7-0 victory.
It would be the second time Oakland was shutout this season, but the A’s thought they’d broken through against San Diego right-hander Zach Davies in the bottom of the fourth when Matt Olson, who’d walked with two out, came around to score on a double into the right field corner from Robbie Grossman.
The Padres challenged the call, and while the first replay seems to show Olson getting his foot in safely, a second one, from behind the play, left room for doubt. And that was enough for those making the call back in New York. The call was overturned, inning over.
“Replays doesn’t mean it’s right; it just means it’s a replay,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said in obvious disgust at the call. “That’s sort of a turning point there. It was a little bit of a momentum swing if we score the first run.
“It’s frustrating, though, because the ones that are too close, they don’t overturn, that we get overturned. So, it is what it is. That doesn’t mean it’s right.”
After his slide, Olson bounced up and gave the classic palms-down safe call, as did home plate umpire Mark Ripperger.
Olson said it “does seem to kind of go against us a lot,” but added he wasn’t sure if every team didn’t feel that way.
And he downplayed the momentum shift.
“I didn’t feel like it took the wind out of our sails or anything like that,” he said. “It’s still a 0-0 game at that point. Even after we gave up the four in the top, there’s still a lot of game left. And we’re obviously a team that comes back a lot.”
So, what, you say? It was just one run. Well, maybe. Maybe not.
The Padres would get a two-out double, too, this one from Tyler Grisham, bringing home the game’s first run against A’s rookie starter Jesús Luzardo. And that would clear the path for a four-run inning when Fernando Tatis Jr. doubled home two runs to make it 3-0, and Eric Hosmer singled home a run before Luzardo could be removed for reliever J.B. Wendelken.
Momentum is a tricky business in baseball. The A’s, playing for the first time in six days, had a chance to grab some on Grossman’s double. When they didn’t, the Padres stepped up.
Tatis would homer again, leading off the seventh inning as the first batter to face newly acquired left-hander Mike Minor, pitching in relief of Wendelken. Manny Machado, the second batter to face Minor, also homered, and Luis Campusano’s first big-league hit, a homer came in the eighth off T.J. McFarland.
Through four innings, Luzardo looked as on top of his game as he had all year, only one batter reached base, Grisham on a two-out single in the third. Beyond that, no balls left the infield, Luzardo collecting outs on nine grounders and three strikeouts.
But to open the fifth, just after Olson’s safe call had been overturned, Wil Myers dropped a bunt, pushed hard enough to get past Luzardo, but not hard enough that third baseman Matt Chapman had a play at first. One out later, Luzardo hit Luis Campusano, then struck out Jurickson Profar before the Grisham double that led to all the trouble.
Davies, meanwhile, would allow a couple of singles and a walk through seven innings en route to running his record to 6-2 in eight starts.
Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3
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