SEATTLE (AP) - Major League Baseball has expressed “regret” over a miscommunication that resulted in a 2-1 loss for the Chicago White Sox against the Seattle Mariners on Saturday night.
Seattle’s Omar Narvaez hit a ball off the top of the wall in the bottom of the 10th inning that was ruled a home run by umpires. The ball did not clear the fence, and had a replay review been conducted, Narvaez would have been awarded a double and the game would have continued tied at 1.
“In last night’s game there was conversation between the umpires and the White Sox as to the procedure for potentially reviewing two different aspects of the game-ending play,” MLB said in a statement Sunday. “There was then a misinterpretation regarding Chicago’s desire to have any aspect of the play reviewed. We regret that this miscommunication resulted in not reviewing the home run call on the field.”
White Sox manager Rick Renteria said he immediately asked umpires to review the homer, and they then went to the headset used to communicate with replay officials.
When Renteria and the umpires reconvened, they asked if Renteria wanted to challenge whether Narvaez had touched home plate amid his celebrating teammates. Renteria mistakenly thought this meant officials had ruled the ball cleared the fence and declined to challenge whether Narvaez touched home, because he had already seen on replays that he had.
Renteria agreed there was a “miscommunication or misunderstanding.” It’s unclear what the umpires discussed on the headset. MLB declined to make the crew available before Sunday’s game, instead issuing the statement.
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