Cleveland Loses Run, Can't Challenge After Earlier "Stands" Call

[Lindsay]

After losing an earlier challenge against Chicago, Guardians manager Terry Francona was unable to review HP Umpire Shane Livensparger's 7th inning out call on runner Amed Rosario's slide into home, which kept the game tied at three instead of Cleveland taking a 4-3 lead.

Cleveland lost its manager's challenge after a "call stands" ruling on White Sox runner Elvis Andrus' stolen base in the bottom of the 6th inning, meaning that under MLB's Replay Review regulations, the Guardians would be without a challenge for the rest of the game, including the 7th inning out call on Rosario.

Had this same sequence occurred in 2014, 2015, or 2016, however, Francona would have been permitted not to challenge the play, but to request a Crew Chief review from Chief Todd Tichenor.

In 2017, MLB changed the Crew Chief review's first inning of eligibility from the 7th inning to the 8th inning (except for home run boundary calls, which are permitted at any time pursuant to the 2008 limited HR replay rules that predated the manager's challenge system), meaning that Cleveland came up one inning short of being able to request a Crew Chief review.

For what it's worth, the rules prohibit Crew Chiefs from initiating reviews for non-HR boundary plays prior to the 8th inning. The rationale for MLB's 2017 change from 7th-to-8th inning starts was to deter teams from filing frivolous manager's challenges earlier in the game on plays unlikely to be overturned by Replay Review. Remember, the original purpose of replay was to correct the "obvious miss" and MLB sought fit to increase the in-game punishment for an unsuccessful challenge.

Video as follows:

Alternate Link: Cleveland can't challenge out/safe call due to earlier lost challenge (CCS)

View the full article