Alejandro De Aza's single-turned-out in the seventh inning Tuesday night wasn't a momentum-crushing blown call, because the Sox went out to score nine runs after it and beat Minnesota by seven. A replay showed Twins right fielder Darin Mastroianni didn't catch the line drive, which was initially ruled a single but changed to an out after Angel Hernandez conferred with his fellow umpires.
Manger Robin Ventura recognized the umpiring crew was just trying to make the correct call, even if it turned out that didn't happen.
"You just want it to be done right," Ventura said. "You want all the calls to be right. It hasn't always been that way, and it's not always easy. I think last night, Angel had it, he thought he had it, but the other guys didn't think he had it so it's one of those things, luckily we overcame that and didn't succumb to the feeling like you're going up against something you couldn't overcome."
Bud Selig has been steadfast in his denial that fans are clamoring for more replay. A plan was in place to add replay for fair and foul calls as well as trapped balls, but the additions were shelved in March when Major League Baseball couldn't come to an agreement with the umpires and players unions. Expanded replay could be implemented next year, which could help teams avoid the mental pitfalls of a blown call.
"You can fall prey to that as far as thinking, well you're not going to win just because a bad break went against you," Ventura said. "They just play, I don't think they think too much about it as far as you'd like to have that guy on base, but you still have to score runs."
For now, though, all the White Sox and other teams can hope for is umpires to confer about a call and try to get it right -- even if that happened last night and the crew didn't make the correct call.
"If the other ones are thinking that he did catch it, then I think he probably re-thinks what he thinks he saw," Ventura said. "They at least got together and discussed it, and that's about all you can really ask them to do when they have differing opinions."