In brushing aside blown passed ball call, Pirates lose in extras to Twins

Replay has been instituted in Major League Baseball since the 2008 season in some form. With that installation comes plenty of trial-and-error and a lot of learning along the way for just about everybody, and that evolution continues to and beyond this day.

It was not a blown foul tip called a passed ball by home-plate umpire Ryan Wills in the first inning that totally cost the Pirates in their 11-5 loss to the Twins Sunday at PNC Park, but the call undoubtedly ruffled the feathers of those who might take umbrage with what is and is not reviewable in this current state of instant replay.

This ball caromed off of Byron Buxton's bat, as this replay below will clearly show, but was missed by all four umpires including Wills. The boxscore will read a passed ball on Henry Davis and Max Kepler scoring on it for a 3-0 Twins lead in the top of the first inning.

Derek Shelton came out for an explanation of what Wills saw. The rest of the crew conferred. Shelton would have been wasting a challenge if it came down to it, anyway.

"Yeah, the foul balls aren't reviewable," Shelton said. "So when I went out, I asked them what they had. First of all, you ask if there was a swing. None of them had swing, none of them had foul ball. And then I basically said, 'If I challenge this and it's a foul ball,'-- I can only challenge a hit by pitch -- I said, 'So if I challenge hit by pitch and they tell me it's foul ball, which I knew the rule, will they change it?' And he said 'no.' So, there's no sense in losing a challenge and there's nothing I can do. It was just one of those plays -- I mean, those plays are tough on umpires when it's up near the hand. I think he thought it hit Henry's glove."

Davis fully knew that the ball did not hit his glove, but he offered some responsibility of why Wills' call ultimately was what it was. Davis felt that Wills did not have an angle on it because his glove blocked Wills' view. Nonetheless, Davis maintained that call in and of itself was not the sole reason for the loss.

"It's worth noting, and I know catchers probably have a unique relationship with umpires, that's a really hard call," Davis said. "My glove fully screened him. If you look at the video replay, my glove is fully in front of the ball. I'm about to catch it. Now he's going to go off Jared (Jones) throwing 100 miles per hour, was that sound -- did it tip leather or did it tip wood. Both of our first reactions with a runner on third are to glance, right? You're immediately looking at the ball looking the other direction.

"I think the frustrating part is we can get that right. If that's a reviewable play -- I don't think anybody would expect (perfection). They're human beings, right? Every night, they're doing their best on every call. Every moment, but I think if we have the ability to get it right -- I don't necessarily know the rulebook -- but if we can see on the rulebook that it's reviewable, I would expect that to happen."

Jones struggled to get through the first inning aside from that incident, as he allowed three runs, two earned, on a pair of hits and a pair of walks. He struggled with his command as he threw 27 pitches to get through the opening three outs. 

In Jones' words, "everything" felt off in he first inning Sunday.

“I just don’t think I had it very well at all today," Jones said. "Stuff like that happens. It’s just a matter of bearing down and executing pitches later in the game.”

He allowed back-to-back singles and back-to-back walks to allow the first run to score. The second run scored when Alex Kirilloff chopped weakly to Rowdy Tellez at first, but Tellez and Oneil Cruz were a step too slow in turning the inning-ending double play. Instead, the Twins led 2-0.

But, Jones held it together through four more innings, as he buckled down to shut the Twins down from any further damage. From the second through the fifth innings, Jones allowed four hits, struck out two and walked none while keeping the Twins from reaching home plate.

Jones threw 18 pitches and 10 strikes in the second inning, though he came back from allowing a leadoff double to Ryan Jeffers and a walk to Willi Castro to get Carlos Santana to pop out, Trevor Larnach to fly out, and Carlos Correa to ground out.

Between the third and fourth innings, Jones faced one over the minimum in throwing a combined 20 pitches and 14 for strikes. He pitched a 1-2-3 fourth and recorded two of his three strikeouts. That settling in allowed for the Pirates' offense to charge back. Tellez doubled and scored on Jared Triolo's single in the second, and the Pirates pulled ahead with a three-run fifth inning, all scored with two outs off of Bailey Ober. 

Davis and McCutchen drew walks. Bryan Reynolds then took a low changeup on a 1-2 count and lined it down the right-field line to bring in Davis to cut the deficit to 3-2. 

And as he has done throughout this season, Connor Joe delivered with a two-run triple to the notch to score McCutchen and Reynolds and give the Pirates a 4-3 lead and chase away Ober:

Derek Shelton turned to Kyle Nicolas to begin the sixth. Nicolas allowed a one-out single to Jeffers and struggled to find the zone. He hit Castro with a pitch and walked Santana to load the bases, upon which he was pulled for Justin Bruihl. Bruihl allowed a sacrifice fly to pinch-hitter Royce Lewis, which tied the game back at 4.

Bruihl was a touch erratic in his own right and after going down in the count to Correa, Shelton opted to intentionally walk Correa to lead the bases with two outs. Bruihl rebounded to get Kepler to ground out to end the threat.

Minnesota took their 5-4 lead in the 10th as Manuel Margot, who pinch-hit for Kirilloff in the seventh, tripled in pinch-runner Kyle Farmer on Ben Heller's second pitch. Heller was the Pirates' last resort in the 10th after Shelton opted to bullpen Saturday's game. Shelton said that four relievers -- David Bednar, Colin Holderman, Carmen Mlodzinski and Luis Ortiz -- were unavailable, and he had already deployed Kyle Nicolas, Justin Bruihl, Hunter Stratton and Aroldis Chapman Sunday.

Minnesota teed off on Heller in his 46-pitch 10th inning. The Twins sent 13 to the plate and scored seven runs on five hits as Heller walked one and hit three batters. In two appearances with the Pirates since being called up Tuesday, Heller has allowed 11 earned runs on nine hits for a 49.50 ERA.

"That's relief pitching, you've got to have a short memory," Heller said. "Still hurts right now but tomorrow's a new day. Got to have a short memory. I know what I can do. I know I'm here for a reason. You don't get to play this game until you're 32 years old as a right-handed relief pitcher unless you're pretty dang good. I know what I'm capable of and I'm determined to figure it out."

Shelton said he was "one hitter away" from putting a position player in to pitch for Heller. Heller got Jeffers to pop out to end the 10th. That was Heller's last batter.

“It’s challenging," Shelton said. "You have to manage from about the seventh inning on after that way, knowing that Heller is the last guy that we have, unless we go to a position player at some point. The fact that offensively we came back and swung the bats and gave ourselves a chance. Honestly, they used the back end of their bullpen in (the seventh, eighth and ninth innings) coming at us and we weren’t able to capitalize.”