‘I don’t know what they’re doing’: Kansas City Royals’ Mike Matheny on replay review

Kansas City Royals manager Mike Matheny was highly critical of Major League Baseball’s replay system in his postgame comments Sunday after the Chicago White Sox took a 4-3 walk-off victory following a reviewed play at the plate.

Wade Davis’ wild pitch with two outs in a tie game allowed Jose Abreu to score from third in front of an announced 9,928 at Guaranteed Rate Field. Royals catcher Cam Gallagher scrambled to gather the ball and dived, glove first, for the plate as Abreu slid, but the umpires ruled Gallagher didn’t tag Abreu.

“There’s a lot that happened in that game, and I just have to make a point that if we’re going to use video replay, there needs to be some accountability,” a heated Matheny said. “I just walked in here and had two different camera angles with this guy out, tagged before he ever even touched the plate — and very obvious.

“I don’t know what they’re doing, if they’re backing each other up. Whatever it is, it’s wrong. A game that hard-played, that well-fought all the way to the end. And they’ve got the opportunity to take that much time. From appearances, it looks like they don’t want to bring them back on the field while they’re here with this crowd. It’s just wrong. Something needs to be done about it.”

Gallagher blocked the Davis curveball in the dirt, but it caromed far enough away for Abreu to break for the plate. Davis had run to cover the plate and receive a throw, but Gallagher went for the tag himself.

“He was safe,” White Sox veteran outfielder Adam Eaton told reporters on a postgame video conference. “They said he was safe, they even gave it replay. I had a pretty good view of it.

“Cam, I think made the right decision. It’s tough for a pitcher to run that far and to catch, find the home plate and we don’t want another collision like we did. I think it’s tough play. So Cam I think made the right play there. Bang-bang play. Heckuva slide by José and we’ll definitely take it.”

GAME REWIND: Video replay ruled Abreu safe on the play at the plate that ended the ballgame. #TogetherRoyal pic.twitter.com/rTXcKEWzbZ

— Bally Sports Kansas City (@BallySportsKC) May 16, 2021

On replay, Gallagher’s glove clearly arrived and crossed the plate well before Abreu reached to touch home. Home plate umpire Edwin Moscoso apparently ruled Gallagher whiffed on the tag and Abreu touched home plate without being touched by Gallagher’s glove.

“I thought I got him on the leg,” Gallagher said. “I don’t know. The replay must have shown otherwise, but I know I touched his leg. It’s not for me to determine. I’ve just got to make the play. I’ve just kind of gotta move on. This one stings a lot for sure, but we’ll come back from it.”

Gallagher said when he saw the replay on the big screen in the stadium, it seemed to confirm what he thought happened.

“He didn’t go over the plate,” Matheny said of Abreu. “He never did touch it until his body came through later. The tag was already placed on his jersey. You could see the jersey move when he tagged him in the body.”

After more than two minutes of review, the umpires signaled “safe” and left the playing field. The report out of Major League Baseball’s headquarters in New York was that the call “stands,” so the officials there ruled there wasn’t enough evidence to overturn the call on the field.