The Giants left Kauffman Stadium with a 5-4 loss to the Royals on Wednesday, but the inning everyone will remember had less to do with Salvador Perez’s history-making homer and more to do with a baffling call that set off a firestorm in the San Francisco broadcast booth.
Kansas City’s five-run seventh started with Vinnie Pasquantino doubling, then nearly losing his balance as he came off second base. Giants manager Tony Vitello immediately wanted a challenge, believing Willy Adames’ tag had caught Pasquantino when he was off the bag. But second base umpire Mike Estabrook ruled that Adames had pushed Pasquantino off the base, which would have blocked the Giants from challenging.
Replay showed otherwise, and Dave Flemming did not hide his disbelief.
“What are you talking about, Mike Estabrook, saying he pushed him?” Flemming said.
Hunter Pence then wondered aloud whether the tag had landed while Pasquantino was stumbling.
“Now that part, I don’t know,” Flemming said. “But don’t start yelling at the Giants saying he pushed him when that was the play.”
When crew chief Alfonso Márquez appeared to tell Vitello he couldn’t challenge, Flemming fired again.
“That is absolutely ridiculous. That is one of the worst ones I’ve seen in a long time.”
The situation boiled over almost immediately after that, with Vitello ejected and a hot mic catching third base umpire Lance Barrett taking aim at the Giants manager.
“I told you twice to stop and you wouldn’t,” Barrett said to Vitello. “Twice!”
Flemming’s reaction was just as blunt.
“That’s just a complete and total failure by the umpires,” Flemming said. “Ridiculous.”
Pasquantino’s awkward slide never appeared to knock him off the base, and he also didn’t seem to be pushed by Adames. The sequence was strange enough on its own, but it was quickly swallowed up by Perez’s homer, which tied the Royals’ franchise career record.
Afterward, Vitello said he was only trying to get the call corrected.
“To be honest with you, I just asked - you know, again, I don’t know the protocol with the scoreboard, but everybody looking at the play obviously disagreed with the call,” Vitello told reporters after the game, per NBC Sports Bay Area. “So, I just asked if it could be corrected.
I don’t know what the response was, but I just said it was a big call. Twice, I said it was a big call.
“And again, out or safe, it’s a big moment in the game. No curse words, if that’s what you’re getting at.
All I said is it was a big call twice. He asked me to stop, I was walking back to the dugout.”
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