Of course, our luck ran out in the bottom of the first of Sunday night’s opener between the Rangers and Astros.
With Jose Altuve on first and no outs in the frame, a Matt Harrison pitch to Brett Wallace got away from A.J. Pierzynski, causing Altuve to try for second. The throw arrived on a hop and appeared to beat Altuve but it was to the far side of the bag and by the time the tag was made, Altuve’s foot was on the base. Alas, Andy Fletcher called him out anyway, so new Astros manager Bo Porter took the field for the first argument of the season. The Astros ended up going scoreless in the inning.
MLB pushed back instant replay at least another year last winter, feeling it ready wasn’t to initiate a proper system. Even though there are a dozen cameras covering every baseball game and most calls can be affirmed or corrected in a matter of a few seconds. Still, one can count on MLB making the replay system as unwieldy as possible. It’s going to be awfully exciting next year watching Charlie Manuel deliberate on whether to throw his challenge flag.
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Update: Fletcher evened things up about a half hour later, taking a single away from Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus on a liner to center that was trapped by Justin Maxwell. That made for two easily-reversible blown calls in the first hour of the season.