NewzNEW YORK (AP) — Anthony Volpe rounded the bases, touched home plate and then waited out the uncertainty like everyone else. “Just hoping for the best,” the New York Yankees infielder said. “Crazy.” With the Yankees' season at stake, Volpe was denied a tying home run against the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 3 of [...]
With no replay system in place back then, the home team benefited from umpires calling it a home run instead of interference, and New York went on to win the World Series.This time, the Yankees wound up losing 4-3 by the very run that was taken off the board and had their season end in a three-game sweep.“I mean, we lost,” Volpe said. "That’s what we’re dealing with now. That’s just what happened.”Replay umpire Malachi Moore made the call on Volpe's sixth-inning drive in Major League Baseball's Replay Center, and players and managers on both sides mostly agreed the right decision was made.“I thought they got it right,” New York skipper Aaron Boone said.
“When he hit it, to my eye looking out there, I was a little concerned right away because it felt like something — I wasn’t sure. And then seeing the replay and seeing it unfold, I thought they did the right thing."With rookie George Lombard Jr. on base — Austin Wells would have been as well if not for a successful ABS challenge by the Rays — Volpe turned on right-hander Griffin Jax’s 96 mph sinker and hit it 357 feet to left field.
It was a matter of inches as to whether a fan reached over the fence and interfered with the ball or it would have cleared the wall without help.“He almost had a big home run,” injured teammate Aaron Judge said. “Off the bat, I liked the chances.”The play was initially called a two-run homer that would have tied the score at 4 with two outs in the sixth. But a lengthy video review determined a fan reached over the wall to catch the ball as Rays left fielder Victor Mesa Jr.
tried in vain for a leaping grab.“It was interference," Mesa said in Spanish. “I believe I might have even been able to get to that ball.
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