And that was after he was ejected.
All Ventura and the White Sox could do was rant and rave after ending up on the wrong side of the latest controversial call under baseball’s expanded replay system in a 7-1 loss to the Giants on Wednesday.
San Francisco scored seven runs in the seventh inning after the replay umpire overturned an out call at home because he said Chicago catcher Tyler Flowers illegally blocked Gregor Blanco’s path to the plate.
Tyler Flowers in front of the plate. (AP Photo)
Ventura, Flowers and the rest of the White Sox believe replay officials need to have more flexibility when they apply the rule.
“If you look at the spirit of the rule of what they are trying to do and what it’s actually doing it’s a joke,” said Ventura, who unsuccessfully challenged a similar call at the plate in Chicago’s 3-2 win Tuesday night in San Francisco. “They don’t take into consideration that the guy was out by a long shot.”
With one out in the seventh, first baseman Jose Abreu fielded Joe Panik’s broken-bat grounder to throw out Blanco by at least six feet. Giants manager Bruce Bochy challenged the play, and umpires ruled Flowers’ left leg was illegally blocking the plate before the ball arrived.
Blanco said Flowers was “definitely” blocking the plate. Flowers agreed, but said that’s not the point.
“Apparently (replay officials) are interpreting this extremely black and white with no context,” Flowers said.
The review lasted 4 minutes and 55 seconds, and umpires also allowed Adam Duvall to advance from first to third. But even after being ejected, Ventura came back out to challenge that decision. The play was reviewed again, and umpires told Duvall to go back to second.
