Royals' Quatraro: 'Good argument' to overturn safe call on Chisholm
Kansas City Royals manager Matt Quatraro feels there was an argument to overturn a critical decision in his team's Game 1 loss to the New York Yankees.
Quatraro asked for a review of a safe call after Jazz Chisholm Jr. stole second in the seventh inning. It appeared there may have been a small amount of daylight between Chisholm's foot and the bag when he was tagged out. However, the original safe call was ultimately upheld.
"I got a really good look at it out there, and afterwards, and I think we did have a really good argument that that should have been overturned," Quatraro said postgame, per Yankees Videos.
When asked if umpires told him why the ruling was upheld, he said: "I haven't gotten any sort of explanation. In my opinion, I thought we had a really good argument to get that overturned."
Royals second baseman Michael Massey, who planted the tag on Chisholm, said the call not being overturned could lead to questions about the replay system.
"It's frustrating because the video that I saw looked pretty convincing to me," Massey said, according to Mick Shaffer of KSHB 41 News. "I know they said they didn't see anything (conclusive), but in my opinion, it's one of those things where if that's something that's not gonna be overturned, then I don't really know what's clear and convincing. And I'm not really sure of the whole point of the (replay) system if a call like that is not gonna (be overturned)."
The upheld call proved critical later in the inning when Chisholm scored what ended up as the winning run on Alex Verdugo's single. New York held on for a 6-5 victory and 1-0 advantage in the best-of-five series.
Chisholm, for his part, had zero doubt that umpires got the call right.
"I knew I was in there," he said. "That's what we were talking about at second base (during the review), actually. He (Massey) was like, 'I think I put down a good tag.' I said, 'You did put down a good tag, but that doesn't mean I'm out.' It was a lot of fun going back and forth.
"But I knew I had it, and I knew they couldn't overturn it, so I was ready to go, get (Verdugo) up there, and score a run."
As upset as Massey was, he didn't pin the loss on the ruling.
"That's not the reason we lost the game," Massey said. "We had plenty of opportunities to score runs (and) make plays, and we didn't."
Game 2 of the ALDS goes on Monday at Yankee Stadium.