NEW YORK — Even with up to 24 video cameras, Major League Baseball didn't have a precise picture showing whether Michael Massey's glove slapped Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s left foot before it touched the corner of second base. Lance Barrett's initial safe call stood awarding the stolen base, and Alex Verdugo followed with a run-scoring single that gave the New York Yankees the lead for good in a 6-5 win over the Kansas City Royals in their AL Division Series opener on Saturday night.
"They just said there was nothing clear and convincing to overturn it, and if he had been called out, that call would have stood, too," Royals manager Matt Quatraro said Sunday. In the first postseason game with five lead changes, the score was 5-5 when Chisholm singled against Michael Lorenzen leading off the seventh. Chisholm took off for second as Anthony Volpe struck out and when Chisholm slid into second, his left foot hit the dirt inches short of the base, causing him to pop up.
Second baseman Michael Massey jumped to snag catcher Salvador Perez's high throw and swiped down with his glove as Chisholm approached the base. The glove hit the front left side of Chisholm's cleats as the back left of the shoe reached the base. After consulting on the phone with Royals instant replay coordinator Bill Duplissea, who was in a room filled with monitors off the stadium tunnel, Quatraro signaled for a video review.
Chris Conroy, the umpire in the Rockefeller Center replay operations center, spent about two m.