What Happened on the Daniel Nava Play?

Ryan Dempster and Jonny Gomes try to fix the destroyed dugout phone.
Photo by Jenny Dell (@JennyDellNESN)

Interesting few days for the Boston Red Sox, wouldn’t you say? Saturday night saw David Ortiz bashing the dugout phone with the war club he calls a bat, nearly hitting Dustin Pedroia in the process. He then FREAKED out after getting ejected for his actions towards the home plate umpire.

Last night, in a make-up game that also saw rain showers delay the game, the Red Sox lost a heartbreaker 2 to 1 and fell to 2^nd place behind the Tampa Bay Rays. Of course, the game had its fair share of drama. It all started when Ryan Lavarnway doubled in the 8^th inning. Manager John Farrell sent Daniel Nava out to pinch-run for him, while he still had speedy shortstop Jose Iglesias on the bench. Farrell later said he wanted to preserve a lefty batter after Jonny Gomes in the lineup should the game go to extras. Stephen Drew then doubled to right field over Wil Myers’ head. But Nava didn’t score. He went halfway but retreated to second thinking Myers had the ball sized up. When the ball went over the fielder’s head and careened off the bullpen wall, Nava scurried to third and made the turn, only to be held up by third base coach Brian Butterfield. Butterfield knew that with the bad jump Nava got, the young outfielder had no chance of scoring on the play. Still, there was only 1 out in the inning.

That turned to 3 very quickly.

Brandon Snyder (who should not have been hitting in that spot anyway. Different discussion) hit a fly ball to left field, and when Rays left fielder Sam Fuld caught it, Nava took off. Fuld fired a strike to catcher Jose Molina who went to put the tag on Nava. But Nava was safe, right Home Plate Umpire Jerry Meals? No. Meals called Nava out. Farrell came out, argued, got ejected, and the sox lost when Mike Napoli struck out with 2 on base in the bottom of the 9^th. Farrell was livid after the game, saying the call was botched. Meals himself said he missed it, and that he had a bad angle to make it. This game may come back to bite Boston in the butt when it gets down to the very end of the season. It shouldn't have come down to a judgment call by an umpire in the first place. Many in the Boston media are now calling for instant replay in the already sluggish game that is Major League baseball. Time to move on though. Abrupt end of blog post.

Daniel Nava slides into home against the Rays. Nava was called out on a blown call.