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SI:AM | Orioles Blast MLB Tech After Would-Be Homer Ruled Foul

Pete Alonso’s blast in the seventh inning would have given Baltimore the lead. Instead, they went on to lose.
Dan Gartland|
Pete Alonso’s towering fly ball would have given the Orioles the lead, but it was ruled foul.
Pete Alonso’s towering fly ball would have given the Orioles the lead, but it was ruled foul. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

In this story:

Baltimore Orioles

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’ll be out for the next couple of days, but a trusty group of backups will have you covered until I’m back on Wednesday. 

In today’s SI:AM: 
🏈 Top 50 NFL draft prospects
🤯 Complicated NBA trade
💻 EPL underdog’s data revolution

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Disbelief in Baltimore

MLB has technology that can determine whether a pitch was within a fraction of an inch of the strike zone, but if you’re trying to decide whether a towering fly ball was fair or foul, good luck. 

With the score tied 3–3 in the bottom of the seventh inning of last night’s game between the Yankees and Orioles in Baltimore, Pete Alonso hit a moon shot down the left field line that curved over the top of the foul pole. Alonso thought he’d given his team the lead. Third base umpire Will Little called it foul. After a replay review, the initial call was upheld. 

You can see for yourself how tough the call was. 

Alonso eventually struck out to end the inning. The Yankees scored two runs in the top of the eighth and held on for the 5–3 win.

After the game, Alonso and the rest of the Orioles were in disbelief. While they waited for the result of the replay review, they used their dugout iPads to look at the Statcast ball-tracking data. That technology determined the ball was fair, Alonso said. The camera angles proved inconclusive, though, so Alonso proposed a solution.

“I think a simple fix is like football, you have the pylon camera with the plane, where it shoots right across the goal line,” Alonso told reporters. “And I feel like, for us, we could easily have a laser or a camera that shoots straight up.”

I’m not sure a laser is the best solution—especially in ballparks located near major airports—but Alonso’s point is well taken. Every stadium is outfitted with a high-tech camera array (Hawk-Eye) that provides precise ball-tracking data, and yet there’s nothing you can do when a ball flies above the top of the foul pole but shrug your shoulders? 

A five-team NBA trade

Peyton Watson on the court
Peyton Watson is going to the Cavaliers after a breakout season in Denver. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Are you sitting down? I’m going to do my best to explain this giant trade that just went down in the NBA. 

The Cavaliers, Nuggets, Clippers, Wizards and Hornets just agreed to a trade that involves six players and three draft picks. It’s a lot to take in, obviously, but the headline is this: The Cavs are acquiring restricted free agent Peyton Watson from the Nuggets while sending Max Strus to the Clippers and Dennis Schröder to the Hornets. Charlotte’s trade for Schröder had been agreed to on Friday and is being folded into the deal centered around Watson and Strus to make this a five-team trade. 

For all the details, check out Liam McKeone’s breakdown of the trade. 

The Cavs are the big winners here. In Watson, Cleveland gets a young, athletic wing player to complement the backcourt of Donovan Mitchell and James Harden and the frontcourt of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen. Watson—who will sign a four-year, $88 million contract with the Cavs—is coming off a breakout season for the Nuggets in which his offensive production finally caught up with his defensive prowess. He averaged 14.6 points per game while improving his three-point percentage from 35.3% the year before to 41.1%. 

The most interesting side of the trade is Denver’s, though, and not in a good way. Losing that type of two-way production is bad news for the Nuggets, who are still left with the most expensive roster in the league. Denver is the only team in the NBA that has crossed the second salary cap apron threshold, having done so after the Thunder pulled off a shrewd move that essentially forced the Nuggets’ hand. Crossing the second apron made it more difficult for the Nuggets to retain Watson, and after they failed to move any of their veterans on hefty contracts to make room for Watson, they had little choice but to trade him away. Now they’re left with an aging roster that’s hemmed in by cap constraints. 

The best of Sports Illustrated

Digital Cover: Buzz Killers
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The top five…

… things I saw last night: 
5. Minnesota United winger Joaquín Pereyra’s nasty back-heel pass. 
4. Brandon Marsh’s grab while jockeying for position with some fans. 
3. Orioles first baseman Samuel Basallo’s full split to stretch out and record the putout. 
2. Franco Negri’s rocket of a goal for the Houston Dynamo. I need an MLS version of Statcast to tell me the exit velocity on that shot. (This angle from directly behind the net is especially cool.)
1. Brewers prospect Sawyer Strosnider’s first professional home run—which was caught by his dad. His dad filmed the moment as well. Strosnider’s dad, Scott, wasn’t supposed to be in that section. “The people on the party deck were like, ‘You know, this is a private party,’” he told MLB.com. “I was like, ‘Well, my son's about to hit a home run that I'm going to catch.’”

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Dan Gartland
DAN GARTLAND

Dan Gartland writes Sports Illustrated’s flagship daily newsletter, SI:AM, and is the host of the “Stadium Wonders” video series. He joined the SI staff in 2014, having previously been published on Deadspin and Slate. Gartland, a graduate of Fordham University, is a former Sports Jeopardy! champion (Season 1, Episode 5).

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