Editorials

Dodgers News: Mattingly Still Asserts Changes Needed To Replay Process

Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

The Los Angeles Dodgers needed to wait over three minutes before learning of what ultimately proved to be the decided out in their rain-shortened win over the Colorado Rockies at sloppy Coors Field Friday night.

As the steady rain turned into a downpour in the bottom of the fifth inning, Charlie Blackmon worked a two-out walk with the Dodgers leading, 2-1. The Rockies outfielder then began a trek around the bases on Corey Dickerson’s chopper up the middle that Justin Turner made a play on, but threw late to first base.



Pushing the envelope, Blackmon rounded third base on the sequence only to be thrown out by Adrian Gonzalez at home plate in a close play. Rockies manager Walt Weiss unsuccessfully challenged the call and the game became official.

While the Dodgers were on the right end of a replay review, manager Don Mattingly again voiced his support for changes to be made to the replay process, according to J.P. Hoornstra of the LA Daily News:

I’ve given my opinion on replay,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. “You like it when it goes your way but I think (MLB) should take the human element out as much as possible.”

Although the call was upheld, the nature of the play was so close that had Blackmon initially been ruled safe, it likely would’ve been the ruling after review. That possibility wasn’t lost on Friday’s starter Brett Anderson, who earned the Dodgers first complete complete-game win of the season, via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:

Maybe I’m a little bit biased,” Anderson said. “I couldn’t tell if his foot got in. If they had called him safe, he might have stayed safe [after review]. I’ll take it. It was a game-changer. A fortunate play, a fortunate call.”

Mattingly railed against the current replay system one day after the Dodgers lost on Ryan Braun’s broken-bat infield single that scored the winning run in the eighth inning. Mattingly had already been ejected for arguing a Clayton Kershaw balk call, which left bench coach and acting manager Tim Wallach to challenge the safe call at first base.

As was the case Friday, the play in Milwaukee easily could have gone either way and the umpires ultimately deferred to the on-field safe call. The idea of a call simply being upheld based on the initial ruling is specifically what Mattingly has taken issue with.

According to baseballsavant.com, the Dodgers have challenged six calls this season and been successful twice. Last season 22 of their 38 challenges were overturned. Opponents have challenged the Dodgers six times in 2015 and had five overturned — adding more intrigue to Friday’s game-defining play at the plate.

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