Tigers' Ausmus unofficially protests Royals' slow challenge

Brad Ausmus couldn't file an official protest against the replay system, but he made sure his concerns about instant replay were on the record Friday with both the media and umpires.

The Detroit Tigers manager had no issue with the result of a sixth-inning challenge by Kansas City Royals skipper Ned Yost that went against his team. Ausmus' problem was he felt Yost waited too long to challenge after the inning had been completed; by the time Yost challenged and umpires completed their nearly 2 1/2-minute review, pitcher Michael Fulmer had been in the dugout for over five minutes.

(Courtesy: MLB.com)

After the call was overturned, Fulmer was forced back to the mound, and the Royals scored their first run of the game. While the play didn't come back to haunt the Tigers - they held on for a pivotal 8-3 win - Ausmus still took issue with umpires allowing the challenge, which he felt was an improper application of the replay rules.

"The rule says that the manager has to get the umpire's attention immediately at the end of an inning, and they have 30 seconds to challenge," Ausmus explained to reporters, according to Matthew B. Mowery of the Oakland Press. "I just felt that they didn't get the umpires' attention. Our pitcher was already in the dugout."

Ausmus noted the game was never officially protested, as managers are prohibited from doing that on reviewable plays. He did ask umpires to review another aspect of the play in question, and aside from airing his grievances with the system publicly, there wasn't much else he could do.

"I said I wanted to protest, which, even going into it, when I said it, I knew instant replay wasn't protestable," Ausmus said. "But basically just wanted that statement on the books, because I didn't think it went the way it should."