FanPost

What should MLB do about the blown Galarraga call?



This is weird. A mistake made in front of all of us. A million replays on ESPN to boot. The ump says he made a blown call and nobody disagrees, except the official score book that closed Armando Galarraga's stats with 9 innings pitched, a win and one very ugly hit given up. Does Bud Selig look the other way? Beats me. I suppose these sorts of calls cannot be overturned later and that's a shame. After the call, the game was finished with the next batter hitting into a grounder- so it's not like there would be anything lost by some sort of rule change later. There clearly was no error on the play- just a routine grounder fielded cleanly by Cabrera who tossed a decent throw to Galartaga, who touched first base on time.

On the other hand, Cabrera cut off second baseman Carlos Guillen from making the play. Guillen could have easily fielded the ball and not had to regroup before sending a throw. Maybe Cabrera should have simply went to first instead of trying to field the grounder. So if there was an error, maybe it should be called against Cabrera and that would give Galarraga a no hitter. Then again, there's word that Cabrera juggled the ball a bit before making the throw- I have not seen those replays. I don't think that really matters all that much as there is one hell of a lot of difference between throwing a one hitter verses a perfect game.

The blown call really should not be all that big news for Galarraga- he's always seemed to be the one Tiger pitching for his job. Heck even after his nice rookie year in 2008 he was no given to make the next year rotation. That's after posting a 13-7 record with a 3.73 ERA in 28 starts for the Tigers. Evan Longoria won AL ROY as a unanimous selection.- Galarraga finished 9th (9 3rd place votes). Galarraga came to the Tigers from the Rangers in 2008. With Texas, he pitched eight years in the minors before getting a September 2007 call up. Apparently the pitching starved Rangers were not impressed with what they saw.

Other Thoughts

Let's remember a few things about this perfect game business- you just never know when it will happen. Galarraga had not had much success pitching for the Tigers this year. In fact his last start (May 22nd) he posted a dismal line of 5 earned runs given up, 6 runs total. He also gave up eight hits (including two homers) and a walk. All this in 4.2 innings. Then he was bumped from his next scheduled start to Sunday. That start was again bumped so the Tigers could insert Max Scherzer into the rotation. So Galarraga gets the Wednesday start and nearly throws a perfect game.

The two perfect games thrown this year have similar oddities. Dallas Braden's two previous starts prior to his perfect game consisted of two losses, 19 hits, 3 walks and nine earned runs over eleven innings. He entered his perfect game with a career record of 17 wins and 23 losses. Now his record stands at 18-26 after losing three of his last four starts. Roy Halladay's previous start was one of the worst of his career, a loss at home against Boston. His stats that game were 5.2 innings pitched, giving up six runs, five earned.