Near-spectacular grab gives Ramirez 2 RBIs
CLEVELAND -- Ben Gamel made what looked like a game-saving, diving catch in the seventh inning of Sunday's 10-4 Mariners win against the Indians, but the loud reaction from the Cleveland fans in Progressive Field's left-field bleachers said otherwise. The ball had popped out of Gamel's glove.
With the bases loaded and Seattle holding a 6-2 lead, José Ramírez lined a pitch from Mariners lefty James Pazos to deep left field. Gamel sprinted to his right -- covering 51 feet in 3.7 seconds, per Statcast™ -- before using an all-out dive to snare the baseball before it hit the grass. As Gamel slammed to the ground, though, the ball slipped out of his glove.
"He almost made an unbelievable play there," Mariners manager Scott Servais said.
Gamel quickly collected the baseball in his glove as he rolled over, shifted to his feet and went to throw the ball in. That was when Gamel realized the play was ruled an inning-ending out, as runners continued to cross home plate for the Tribe. The left fielder began to jog off the field, but the Indians quickly challenged the call, while a replay on the scoreboard clearly showed the baseball coming free from Gamel's glove.
"I didn't really know what to do," Gamel said. "I caught it and went to the ground and slid and it came out at the very end of my slide. I just picked it up real quick. I got up to throw and the umpire called out, so I wasn't going to challenge it."
Based on Gamel's initial reaction, Indians manager Terry Francona figured the left fielder did not complete the play.
"I thought the way he reacted looked peculiar," Francona said.
Following a replay review lasting two minutes and 19 seconds, the out was overturned, Ramirez was rewarded with a two-run double and Francisco Lindor -- who sprinted home from first on the play -- was sent back to third. Francona argued with third-base umpire Mark Wegner about Lindor's placement, but was told that aspect of the ruling came down from the replay center in New York.
"I just told him that I think we may have got penalized a run because an umpire was a little quick on the call," Francona said. "The kid out there knows he didn't catch it and [third-base coach Mike Sarbaugh] was bringing Frankie all the way. It was hard to understand why we would lose a run there."
Sarbaugh also felt Lindor should have been credited with a run.
"I felt Frankie would've scored. I thought it should've been 6-5. I guess they didn't feel that way," Sarbaugh said. "[Lindor] was pretty close to third and he was picking the ball up and just getting off the ground. I felt good about scoring there. He had a good jump and he went back a ways and dove for the ball. I felt like we had a good chance to score three there."
"The replay official determines the placement of the runners." Wegner told a pool reporter. "They have all the video that they look at, including an overhead camera that sees everything."
Once play resumed, Pazos induced an inning-ending groundout off the bat of Michael Brantley, preserving Seattle's 6-4 lead. The Mariners then responded with four runs over the final two innings to more than make up for the runs scored on the play.
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"Weird play with the umpire calling him out," Servais said. "But, thankfully for us, Pazos regrouped and got the big out against Brantley to get us off the field and put our offense back to work."