PHOENIX – When umpires told Jesse Winker that he had to stay at second base, he broke into a smile and made a thumbs down motion.
Winker crushed the first pitch of Friday’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, his first time back in the lineup after a four-game absence, to the right-center-field wall. The ball hit the yellow padding and ricocheted off a pool chair that was backed against the wall before bouncing back onto the field.
It was ruled a double on the field. Umpires gathered and initiated a replay review. Crew chief Larry Vanover put on a headset and waited for nearly two minutes before the replay review crew in New York informed him that the call stood.
The in-house replays on the Chase Field video board showed the ball hit the back of the pool chair. On separate TV broadcasts, the Bally Sports Ohio and Bally Sports Arizona announcers seemed confident that it would be overturned to a home run.
Reds manager David Bell seemed surprised that it wasn’t overturned and chatted with Vanover after the replay review. There are no explanations from the replay crew in New York; just the result of the review.
“Once it goes to replay, it’s out of the hands of the umpire on the field,” Bell said after the game. “I know you’re not allowed to argue that. I’m guessing they had a different view than what we saw.”
Winker was stranded after his leadoff double, so the call to keep it a double cost the Reds a run. The Reds won, 6-5, in 10 innings for their sixth consecutive win.
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