Cover Photo: Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images


With the score tied 5-5 in the top of the seventh inning in last night's game between the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox, Astros second baseman Jose Altuve appeared to have scored the go-ahead run. But home plate umpire Quinn Alcott had other ideas, much to the dismay of Astros bettors. 


The play began on a ground ball to Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts, who fielded and fired the ball home to catcher Sandy Leon. The throw was a bit high, taking Leon off his feet where he applied the tag to Altuve while landing. The tag, seemingly coming late, was actually called as an out by Alcott.


The review of the play took an overwhelming 3 minutes and 50 seconds to decide -- precisely, the type of thing MLB wants to avoid. And after all that time, it was determined that there wasn’t sufficient evidence from the eye in the sky to overturn the call.


Um, what?

Astros outfielder Josh Reddick had his own thoughts on the close play at the plate. It's also further proof that Alcott blew the call. 

The play ended up being extremely important to the outcome of the game, as the Red Sox scored a run in the bottom of the ninth for the walk-off win. Not to mention, this was an important game for both teams heading toward playoff berths.


The point of replay in MLB is to get it right. Earlier in last night's game, there was another awful call, this time at first base. The Red Sox Andrew Benintendi was called out despite being safe by about four days. Luckily, the replay system overturned that call in under 10 seconds, and no harm was done.

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Al Walsh is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Al Walsh also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username 14AdotWalsh. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.