Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Lack of instant replay looms big in another no-hitter

Los Angeles Dodgers v Philadelphia Phillies

PHILADELPHIA, PA - JUNE 6: Dee Gordon #9 of the Los Angeles Dodgers looks on from the on-deck circle during the game against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on June 6, 2012 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Rob Tringali/Getty Images)

Getty Images

Just like in Johan Santana’s no-hitter exactly a week ago, a close play that could have been overturned by replay loomed large in Seattle’s combined no-hitter against the Dodgers on Friday night.

Dee Gordon, maybe the National League’s fastest player, led off the bottom of the ninth with a broken-bat flare to shortstop against Tom Wilhelmsen. Brendan Ryan, just in the game as a defensive replacement, grabbed the ball and made a strong throw to first, getting the out call. Replay, however, showed that Gordon may have beaten the relay.

In this case, the evidence wasn’t so solid as last week’s fair-foul call on what should have been a Carlos Beltran double. The play at first base was so close there’s a good chance it wouldn’t have been overturned on whatever replay system baseball eventually implements. Still, it did look like Gordon was safe. Besides just disrupting the no-no, it was a huge call in what was just a 1-0 game at the time. It’s one of those calls MLB will someday need to make its best effort to get right, instead of just letting one man try to call it at real speed.