Angels’ Protest Of 8-6 Loss At White Sox Denied By MLB

OAKLAND (AP) — Major League Baseball has denied the Los Angeles Angels’ protest of their extra-inning loss at the Chicago White Sox last week, although it still hasn’t convinced manager Mike Scioscia the call was correct.

On the play Friday night, Chicago’s Paul Konerko grounded to third with the bases loaded and no outs in the first inning. After getting an out at home, catcher Chris Iannetta fired wide to first, pulling Albert Pujols off the bag.

Scioscia argued that Konerko was not within the baseline for the last 45 feet, as is required. The umpires upheld the safe call and Scioscia played the game under protest. A.J. Pierzynski hit a three-run homer with two outs for a 4-1 lead.

The White Sox wound up winning 8-6 in 10 innings.

Speaking before the Angels opened a three-game series at Oakland on Monday night, Scioscia said he accepts the decision by MLB executive vice president Joe Torre announced earlier in the day. He just doesn’t agree with the decision.

“The league gave weight to the fact of still having judgment of umpires being part of the play.” Scioscia said. “I see some of the things they’re saying, but I also feel strongly in the stances that we took on it. If there’s a trash can in the middle of the lane and you’re driving and you veer off into a ditch and crash your car, the insurance company is going to say, ‘Well, the trash can was in the middle of the road. But we’re not going to pay because you’re the one who veered off the road.’

“I think it’s the same thing,” Scioscia continued. “In my opinion, there’s no way from a fixed point of home plate to first base in a lane that a catcher has to throw a ball at a runner who’s a solid 3 feet inside the lane on the grass can possibly not impair the ability of a catcher to make that throw. It’s just physically impossible to say that it does not impair that. But, still, the judgment of the umpires is the second part of the equation and we’ll live with that.”

Scioscia said he hadn’t talked with Torre about the decision and had no plans to do so. He also said he has never won a postgame protest as a manager.

“You never know what they’re going to do, but we wouldn’t have appealed it, we wouldn’t have protested it, if we felt there was (not) some solid ground,” Scioscia said. “This wasn’t frivolous. This was certainly something that needed to be looked at, and the leagued looked at it.”