ANNOUNCERS CONFOUNDED BY CALL NOT OVERTURNED BY REPLAY

It’s likely that Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez were just as confused as you were about why Harrison Bader was called out on a close play at third base on Monday.

After leading off the 8th inning with a double, Bader took off for third on a ground ball hit in front of him. It wasn’t exactly a smart play, but J.D. Martinez hit the ball softly, and the New York Mets centerfielder had enough speed to beat the throw—which he did. And it looked like he got in safely before St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado applied the tag.

So did the Mets, which is why New York challenged umpire Doug Eddings’ call on the field. Eddings, after a lengthy call that seemed like a sure thing, announced the replay center’s decision — the call on the field would stand, but not confirmed.

Neither Cohen nor Hernandez could believe it.

“Wow, that is hard to believe,” said Cohen. “It certainly looked like he was safe.”

“That is — huh. I beg to differ,” added Hernandez.

In quoting Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the ever-eccentric Cohen, quipped that the replay center and umpiring crew went with “not to be” rather than to be.

“You got that right,” said a chuckling Hernandez.

The Mets have been on the wrong end of some calls recently, which included quite the hot mic moment from manager Carlos Mendoza. And Mendoza would be fitting to have a legitimate gripe, mainly because there seemed to be irrefutable evidence to overturn Monday’s call. But there seems to be an epidemic and an unwillingness to overturn the call on the field if a bang-bang play is close enough. And that’s left many fans wondering about the purpose of the replay.

Cohen and Hernandez don’t carry water for the Mets, but Monday seemed to be another instance of them allowing their unfitted opinion to shine through. And they seemed just as confused as the viewers at home. But this is just the nature of Major League Baseball. We move on and will undoubtedly talk about a missed call and the lack of consistency with replay today, tomorrow, and so on.

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2024-05-07T23:06:21Z dg43tfdfdgfd