Two, Two, Two Replays in One!

[Manny A]

I was at Nats Park yesterday for the third time this season, and finally got to witness a play review using instant replay. What made this situation unique (probably the first time in MLB history) is that two reviews were initiated during the same play.

Situation: Texas Rangers had runners on first and third with two outs. R1 took off on a steal of second, and the Nats F2 threw the ball down. As that happened, R3 took off for home. R1 was initially ruled safe at second, but then came off the bag slightly and was tagged out. After the out call, there was question whether or not R3 touched home prior to the ruling at second. The PU never gave a signal one way or the other until U1 came in and asked what he had. After a brief discussion, the PU looked up at the scorer and pointed repeatedly at home, signaling that the run did score.

Here came the requests for review. The Nats manager felt that R3 did not touch home before the out at second base. Meanwhile, the Rangers manager believed his runner never lost contact at second base. So the game was delayed for a relatively significant amount of time while the umpires checked on both calls.

In the stands, I had no idea that the Rangers were disputing the call at second. I thought the only issue was whether or not the run scored. So as the reviews were going on, I couldn't figure out why U3 was waving at the Nats dugout directing that the players come back out onto the field. It wasn't until the PA announced that there were two reviews taking place that I understood why U3 was calling for the Nats to come out. Only about four or five of them did, and they were gathered around U3 standing near first base.

The scoreboard showed a couple of replays of the calls, but they were inconclusive at best. Not all angles were shown, so it was hard to tell from the stands what was going to result.

Finally, the decisions were made: R1 did come off the bag at second and was tagged out. And R3 did not touch home before the out took place. So the Nats' appeal was successful, and the Rangers' was not. I was surprised because I thought R3 was well past home when the out was ruled at second.

Strange seeing that for the first time!