Kansas City Royals score a run after umpire Angel Hernandez is ‘blinded’ by scoreboard

The Kansas City Royals jumped out to a three-run lead before the Cleveland Indians rallied to score the final seven of the game on Tuesday night.

However, the play that led to the game’s second run caused raised eyebrows, on-field confusion, a harsh assessment of umpiring crew chief Angel Hernandez from Indians manager Terry Francona and a fairly stunning admission from Hernandez that he “guessed” on his call.

A high fly ball off the bat of Salvador Perez with one out in the third eventually went in the scorebooks as an RBI single, but it took a roundabout path to that conclusion.

“Our goal was to get the play right, and that’s exactly what we did,” Hernandez told a pool reporter after the game. “We talk about this. Replay is an extension of what we do out there. As you saw, I got basically blinded by the outfield scoreboard. The pixels on the lights were as clear as white can be. I was trying to make out what happened out there.

“The harder I looked, the less I could see. So I was trying to read the players to see what they did with the ball. And I had to come out with the call. I basically guessed on the wrong call. So as soon as I turned around, (home plate umpire) Edwin (Moscoso) started walking towards me. We got the crew together. And we fixed the problem.”

With Whit Merrifield on third base and Andrew Benintendi on second, Perez’s high fly ball fell on the warning track in right-center field between center fielder Harold Ramirez and right fielder Josh Naylor. The play happened in front of an LED board embedded in the outfield wall.

Merrifield tagged up at third base because the ball was deep enough that he’d score regardless. Benintendi was confused as to whether he needed to tag, started running to third when the ball fell, but went back to second base after Hernandez, the first base umpire and interim crew chief, signaled the ball had been caught.

That confusion led to Andrew Benintendi being tagged out after changing directions multiple times between second and third base. Benintendi was tagged out as he returned to second, but was awarded third by the umpires.

“He responded to my out call,” Hernandez said of Benintendi. “That’s what got him hung up. When we got together, that’s what we pieced together. He was between second and third. That’s why we decided to put him at third base. He wasn’t going to advance any further than third base. And the batter runner, of course, we decided as a crew, that he was going to go no further than first base. And obviously, we scored the run.”

Royals manager Mike Mathney said he couldn’t see if the ball was caught.

“There was no signal, no out or safe call to kind of give the guys any guidance. The whole thing looked confusing, as it was to me as well,” he said. “What they realized was they did not make a call, then it came down to placement of runners. If they had made the call, we would’ve been able to advance Benny to third and they leave Salvy (at first). Fortunately, we got the run in also.”

Francona argued vehemently after the umpires made their ruling.

“No. No,” Francona said when asked about protesting the game. “I just kind of told Angel ‘Why’s it always happening when you’re here?’ It’s aggravating, but I don’t think there was anything we could do. Believe me, I was thinking about it, I didn’t know.”

Francona had little recourse after the fact. Using a video replay challenge would have been fruitless because the ball wasn’t caught.

“What are they going to review? We knew it wasn’t a catch,” Francona said. “Everybody I think knew it but Angel.”

Francona’s primary source of frustration was Benintendi having been awarded third base, but Benintendi did not end up scoring in the inning. He was left stranded on third.

“They said they put him where they thought he would have been,” Francona said. “... I’ve got to look at the rule. If the baserunner doesn’t actually attempt to get there, I’m not sure how you give him that base. But I was so mad at him that I didn’t even bring that up, and it probably wouldn’t have mattered.”