Quintin Berry Stole Second, Looked Out as Umps Miss Call

Quintin Berry stole second in the top of the eighth for the Red Sox in ALDS Game 3 against the Rays at the Trop. Minor problem: all replays showed that the throw from Jose Molina to Ben Zobrist covering at second beat Berry. On top of that, Zobrist’s foot blocked him from touching the bag.

Ultimately it didn’t end up costing Tampa Bay, since Jake McGee got out of the inning unscathed. Still, it’s a bad call by second-base ump Mike Winters. (As we know, in the age of social media the dreaded #humanelement cannot exist any more in sports.)

It’ll be fun to see how this type of play unfolds next year when managers are able to throw challenge flags. Let’s hope they’re able to sort it out quicker than they do on all non-Rex Ryan NFL challenges.

Our Kyle Koster raised an excellent point about the questions facing replay in baseball:

Think of how good instant replay will be at calling obstruction on that play and awarding him second anyway.
— Kyle Koster (@KyleKoster) October 8, 2013

Either way, Berry — who ran for David Ortiz — was called safe and he’s now 27-for-27 in his Major League career stealing bases.