For what seems like the trillionth time this season, the Cleveland Indians draw the short straw yet again by a flawed replay system.
An all too familiar sight for the Cleveland Indians. A challenge does not go their way. Yasiel Puig attempted a steal of third and was called out. At first glance that call appeared to be correct. After seeing the first and second angle of the replay, still looked correct. The third angle clearly shows that he was safe.
The key part of the replay is the angle from behind third base. Tigers third baseman Dawel Lugo clearly splits the uprights that are Yasiel Puig’s arms. If you don’t want to watch the replay and prefer a still picture, I present the following from SportsTime Ohio.
Lugo clearly missed. It wasn’t even close. It is not like he grazed Puig’s arm as his glove was going to hit the dirt. This was a complete whiff. To put it simply, Lugo tagged the dirt.
This really is not a shocking development in regards to the Indians and the replay system. The MLB replay system sucks to begin with and has not been kind to the Tribe all season long. The two most notable instances being against the Twins when two HBP’s were called when they were clearly not HBP’s.
Major League Baseball has all the technology in the world and is apparently unable to get a simple tag play reviewed correctly. If someone sitting at home on their couch can see that Puig was clearly safe and MLB can’t, that is a major problem.
Luckily for Cleveland this play did not impact the game as they trounced the Tigers 10-1. The lesson here is that the Indians cannot rely on replay to get things right when they have proven they are unable to. Cleveland needs to be in a situation that a terrible replay system cannot impact the final score.
