Andrew Benintendi was not happy about the umpires overturning a call during Saturday night’s Boston Red Sox-Oakland A’s game that helped Sean Manaea achieve his no-hitter.
Benintendi was batting with two outs in the top of the sixth inning when he grounded a ball to first base. Oakland’s Matt Olson fielded it and tried to reach out to tag Benintendi but missed him, which put Benintendi on first for Boston’s first hit of the game. The A’s challenged the play because they thought Benintendi was out of the base path, and the umpires agreed upon review. They overturned the call from a hit and ruled that Benintendi was out of the base path.
Matt Olson fields the ball and lunges for the tag, forcing Andrew Benintendi to leave the base path and keep Sean Manea's no-hit bid intact (00:58)
MLB Gameday: https://t.co/W91qs6MEvu pic.twitter.com/EcoUkD14B0
— Ballpark Videos (@BallparkVids) April 22, 2018
After the game, Benintendi called it a “missed call” by the umpires. The Boston Globe’s Pete Abraham adds that Benintendi felt the umpires were trying to help Manaea to keep the no-hitter intact.
Andrew Benintendi called it a “missed call” and thought the umpires were “searching for something” because of the situation. He was steamed.
— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) April 22, 2018
Umpire crew chief Brian Gorman defended the call, noting the rule says that if a runner goes more than three feet out of the path, the runner should be out.
Crew chief Brian Gorman:
“He has three feet either way. So if he goes more than three feet avoiding the tag he's declared out for being out of his baseline.” pic.twitter.com/TXMofuTfkv
— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) April 22, 2018
Though Benintendi was understandably steamed over the call, at least one of his teammates was more magnanimous. Hanley Ramirez tipped his cap to Manaea with a tweet.
Congratulations Sean Manaea, you were really good tonight bro
— Hanley Ramirez (@HanleyRamirez) April 22, 2018
On top of the Benintendi play, there was a ball in the fifth inning that was ruled an error that Manaea thought was a hit. He said after the game that he didn’t even know he had a no-hitter until the eighth as a result.
Manaea thought the Semien error was a hit, so he didn’t know he had a no-hitter going until the eighth. pic.twitter.com/PRXXV5IMwL
— Jane Lee (@JaneMLB) April 22, 2018
The controversial calls didn’t stop Twitter from reacting positively to Manaea’s outing. No matter how you slice it, shutting out the best team in MLB is impressive.
