In the eighth inning of an 8-5 game in San Francisco, the Boston Red Sox sought to begin a rally. Jarren Duran cracked a hit to right field, and as he does so often, he attempted to stretch it from a single to a double.
As Mike Yastrzemski fielded the ball and hucked it to second base, Duran lunged forward to dive into the bag. He jumped too far, however, and his fingers came off the base for a split second after his body passed it. Second base umpire Doug Eddings called him out, and the Red Sox used their challenge to dispute the call.
Replays showed the very tips of Duran's fingers on the bag before Willy Adames tagged him. Still, the call was upheld, and Duran uttered enough four-letter words to be ejected from the game. Alex Cora raced out to the infield to defend his outfielder, only to be ejected himself.
"He's safe, clearly," Cora said after the game. "The one that I was upset [about] was the one at the plate... my whole frustration at the end was more at that."
Disastrous day by umpires crushes potential Red Sox rally, results in Jarren Duran, Alex Cora ejections
Cora referenced Abraham Toro's fourth-inning out at the plate, on a play that could've tied the game at two. Ceddanne Rafaela drilled a double to the right field wall, and Toro attempted to score from first base. The Giants' throw beat Toro to the plate by a mile, but he hopped over Patrick Bailey's mitt as he attempted to tag him out. Toro scrambled to the plate and appeared safe, but was called out by home plate umpire Mike Muchlinski for running out of the base path.
But runners create their own base path. Toro didn't move to the side before he leaped over Bailey's attempted tag, but the Red Sox were unable to contest Muchlinski's ruling because the play was not reviewable.
The out calls on Toro and Duran were far from the only bad calls of the game. Muchlinski called David Hamilton out on strikes in the ninth inning, one of which looked about six inches off the plate. The exact same pitch was called a ball two throws earlier.
It'd be hard to argue that the Red Sox deserved to win the game. They committed two errors and allowed a staggering five unearned runs for the second time this season. But a disastrous day by the umpiring crew didn't help in any way.