Gardenhire: MLB says mistake made in reversing game-deciding call Friday
The Detroit Tigers' first win of the season was taken away from them on Friday because of an overturned replay review, and MLB has now acknowledged mistakes were made, according to manager Ron Gardenhire.
During the 10th inning of Detroit's game on Friday against the Pittsburgh Pirates, baserunner Nicholas Castellanos was initially called safe on a play at the plate. While Tigers players stormed the field to celebrate their walk-off victory, the play was reviewed and eventually overturned, ending the inning.
After Gardenhire was tossed from the contest for arguing the matter, the Pirates went on to win the game 13-10 in extra innings.
"We heard what we wanted to hear," Gardenhire said, according to Evan Woodberry of MLive. "I will tell you that. They told us what we knew was right. There you have it.
"The explanation was they didn't really have conclusive evidence that somebody tagged him," the skipper added. "Yes, he might have got him. 'We think he got him' is not good enough. In this situation, it has to be definitive. It has to be, 'Yeah, I see him (tag) him.' It's not, 'Well, he looked like he touched his sleeve.' That can't happen. It's got to be conclusive. Obviously it didn't happen. There were mistakes made. That's fine. It won't bring anything back."
Gardenhire was also displeased with the amount of time it took for a decision to be made, as the review took much longer than the two-minute time period that's supposed to be in play. Although replay officials are allowed to take longer if needed, Gardenhire wasn't buying it.
"You're talking almost double the time limit," he explained. "It's supposed to be a two-minute deal or we move on, right? There was a mistake made."
Gardenhire said MLB blamed the length of the review on the Tigers because they were on the field celebrating.
"As soon as you put on the headphones, we stopped and stood there. That's a BS explanation," Gardenhire told reporters, according to Chris McCosky of The Detroit News. "That's straight BS. That's what I told them."
The Tigers still remain winless this season.