MLB changes call on controversial play during Darvish's near no-hitter
So apparently Texas Rangers ace Yu Darvish didn't carry a no-hitter into the ninth inning of the May 9 game against the Boston Red Sox after all.
Major League Baseball heard David Ortiz's appeal of his controversial seventh inning at-bat and sided with the Boston Red Sox slugger, changing the two-out fly ball to right from an error on Alex Rios to a single for Ortiz.
The play was initially ruled an error by scorekeeper Steve Weller, who at the time had the blessing of both Elias and MLB in his decision. Weller cited rule 10.12 (a) (1) that allows a scorer to rule a ball an error if a fielder should have made the play using ordinary effort.
The two-out bloop fell between Rios and Rougned Odor. After the game Rios said the call should have been an error. Odor said he couldn't hear Rios call him off because of the crowd noise.
Darvish had a perfect game going at the time of the play and still had a no-hitter with two outs in the ninth. That's when Ortiz broke up what at the time would have been a no-hitter with a single through the shift in right.
When told about the scoring change, Darvish wasn't too concerened.
"We won that game," Darvish said through a translator on Wednesday, The Associated Press reported. "Whether it was a one-hitter or two-hitter, we won the game. That's something that happened in the past. The only thing I care about is the win."
Ortiz opted to appeal the play Saturday. He could have gone through the Red Sox or done it himself. He chose to appeal the call himself through his agent.
Darvish, who had his scheduled start on Wednesday pushed back to Friday because of the 126 of pitches he threw in the Boston game, joked about the incident.
"If that error, or the error that became a hit in the seventh inning, if that would have been decided a hit during the game I would probably have to pitch today," Darvish said on Wednesday. "So it would probably help my career not to throw that many pitches if it had been decided during the game."
He then jokingly thanked Big Papi.
"I wanted to appreciate Ortiz," he said with a laugh.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
