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Crew chief Tim Tschida admitted that left field umpire Phil Cuzzi blew a key call in the 11th inning of the Twins' Game 2 loss to the Yankees.
In the half-inning before New York's Mark Teixeira scraped his walk-off home run over the left-field wall, Twins catcher Joe Mauer sent a bloop down the line that deflected off of left fielder Melky Cabrera's glove and then bounced in fair territory. Either way, the ball was fair. Only Cuzzi ruled that it wasn't, stripping a leadoff double from the Twins' MVP candidate.
"[He] saw the ball as foul, called what he saw," Tschida said. "Afterwards, like any close play, we went in and we looked at it and it's a clear indication that an incorrect decision was rendered."
"I think we all know the ball was fair by a long ways," Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire said.
Mauer soon followed with a single, as did Jason Kubel and Michael Cuddyer. So while Cuzzi's blown call only ended up costing Mauer a base, it may have also wound up costing Minnesota a crucial lead in extra innings.
When a reporter asked Gardenhire how the game might have changed if Cuzzi had made the correct call, he responded with a question of his own.
Said Gardenhire: "What did the next guy (Kubel) do? ... Next guy got a single. You can figure that out, I think."
"There's a guy sitting over in the umpire's dressing room right now that feels horrible," Tschida said of Cuzzi. "I've been there. Some of you have been through that with me at a time or two when you render a decision and it could have a negative impact on the outcome of the game. Nobody feels it worse than the umpire."
Missed calls by the umpires have become a major storyline early on in the 2009 postseason, but Cuzzi's gaffe is the first to have a direct and significant impact on the outcome of a game.
Major League Baseball introduced instant replay on boundary (home run) calls during the middle of last season, but the clamoring for expanded replay will only grow louder with each missed call.
"It's not my call. I'm just managing a baseball team. I can't make that decision for them. There's not [more replays]," Gardenhire said. "We had six umpires out there. I think, right, six? Six umpires."
"That decision [on expanded replay] is going to be made by somebody at a much higher level than I," Tschida said.
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