Cubs lose baseball’s first-ever challenge via instant replay, Braves get call overturned
Chicago’s challenge failed, but shortly thereafter, the Braves got a play overturned in Milwaukee.
Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sport
The Chicago Cubs failed to overturn the call in the first-ever challenge in the history of baseball.
Starting pitcher Jeff Samardzija attempted to bunt the runner over to third, but his counterpart, Francisco Liriano made a quick throw to third for the force out and third baseman Pedro Alvarez threw to first to get Samardzija. It was a close play. Close enough for Cubs first-year manager Rick Renteria to challenge the call. There's no little flag in baseball. Renteria simply walked out to the umpires and made his challenge apparent.
Some of the rhetoric in the commentary sounds similar to the NFL’s replay episodes. Phrases like “incontrovertible evidence” and “human error” were uttered, and in the end, the call on the field stood. That will probably be the case most of the time since, like the NFL, the call on the field has to be clearly proven wrong in order to be officially overturned.
The whole challenge took less than two minutes.
In Milwaukee, Fredi Gonzalez challenged a close call at first and succeeded in getting the call overturned.
Braves third baseman Chris Johnson doubled clutched before throwing out Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun at first. He was originally called safe, but the video clearly showed the ball beat him to the bag.
The entire situation unfolded rather quickly. A concern some had upon hearing of the new replay rules was the amount of time it would take, but the early results have been pretty seamless.
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