CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Indians plan to send videos of two games of their 4-0 loss to the Rays on Wednesday at Tropicana Field to MLB headquarters in New York in an attempt to clear up an official scorer’s decision that could keep them from being no -hit for the third time this season.
An Indian spokesman said the video will be broadcast to MLB in the coming days.
On Wednesday the Indians were defeated by the Rays in a double header with seven innings, 8-1 and 4-0. They weren’t a hit in the second game when an Oscar Mercado single was converted to a fault by the official scorer in the third inning one inning later.
In the past, controversial games were reviewed by Joe Torre, then Chief Baseball Officer of the MLB, and the MLB Referee Regulatory Boards. Torre is now a special assistant to Commissioner Rob Manfred so it is not known if he will be included in the process.
In the third inning, Mercado sent a ground ball down the left side of Tampa’s infield. Shortstop Taylor Walls and third baseman Wander Franco collided and didn’t make a first throw. Mercado was described as safe and rated as a hit.
In the bottom of the fourth, the official goalscorer turned the goal into a mistake on Franco.
In the fifth, batting the rays, Franco dispatched a grounder to the left side of the infield. Shortstop Amed Rosario and third baseman Owen Miller collided – not as hard as Franco and Walls – but a game couldn’t be made. Franco was credited with a hit.
Coach Terry Francona said after the game: “I thought it was an instant hit. It’s hard to understand that one is a hit for them and one is a mistake for us. I guess they won’t have to celebrate this in a few days. They are likely to change it, but that doesn’t change what the score was and what we did and didn’t do. “
If a decision is made that both plays will be counted as faults, Native American left-handed Sam Hentges would remove a deserved run from his stats line.
MLB and Elias Sports Bureau, which keeps MLB stats, do not recognize seven-inning no-hitters as legitimate no-hitters. Elias said, “Team and individual no-hitters will not be awarded in scheduled seven innings games unless the game goes into additional innings and the team (or the individual in a full game) pitches at least nine innings and does not allow one a beat. “
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