In the bottom of the first inning, Houston Astros designated hitter Jose Altuve launched a fly ball to the right-field wall that prompted Boston Red Sox right fielder Mookie Betts to go into a full jump. As Betts extended his arm high over the 7-foot wall, the ball bounced back onto the field of play.
Replays appeared to show that Betts’ left arm stretched over the wall and into the sea of fans. As he tried to make the catch, Betts’ glove closed a split-second too early. He says it was because the glove made contact on its back side with a fan’s hands. From there, the ball touched another fan before coming back onto the field.
“I was pretty positive that ball was going in my glove,” Betts said. “But as I jumped and went over, reached my hand up, I felt like somebody was kind of pushing my glove out of the way or something.”cheap nfl nike jerseys from china
When the ball didn’t land in Betts’ glove, a hustling Altuve was bracing for the possibility that he’d at least be standing on second base when all was said and done.
“For a moment, when I saw the ball on the warning track, then I thought, ‘OK. That’s a double. I’ll take it.'” Altuve said.
Immediately, Astros manager A.J. Hinch popped out of the dugout to argue with crew chief and right-field umpire Joe West, who made the initial call. Their conversation took West and his crew to replay.
After 3 minutes, 13 seconds, the review resulted in the call standing. Altuve was declared out via fly out to Betts because of fan interference, nullifying what would have been a potential tying, two-run home run. George Springer was sent back to first base.
“[West] just said that it was fan interference on the field. And my argument was more about that the ball was leaving the yard, the trajectory was there,” Hinch said during the game telecast. “Jose paid kind of the ultimate price for something out of his control.
“I’m not sure if Mookie makes that catch. He’s a great athlete. But how it’s an assumed out, it’s unbelievable.”cheap nfl jerseys china nike
After the game, Hinch expanded upon that latter thought, saying: “We assume — and you can assume a lot with Mookie because he’s an incredible athlete — we assume he’s going to make this spectacular catch, jumping as high as he can into the crowd.”
