A win! A win! Major League Baseball and Joe Torre announced this afternoon that the Rays' protest from Saturday was denied meaning the Blue Jays will keep their win. The recap was written up nicely by MjwW, so let's remind ourselves of what happened first:
With the score 2-1 and 1 out in the 4th, Mark Buehrle got Wil Myers to hit a ground ball to third, and beat it out for an infield single. Before Yunel Escobar saw a pitch, Buerhle caught Myers flat footed off first on a pick-off attempt, but Myers was called safe on a bang-bang play. Gibbons came out to challenge the play, but not before Buehrle (diligent worker that he is) had already got back on the mound and Escobar was in the box.
To the objective observer, the Rays had a real case to get this game replayed from the fourth inning with Wil Myers on first base. Instead, the protest has been rejected and the Blue Jays will keep the win they earned in a tense tenth inning on a Jose Reyes walk-off hit:
If the protest was upheld, it would have been the second one in a week with the Giants and Cubs game being restarted after being shortened by rain a few days earlier. Before that mess in Chicago, the last protest upheld had come over two decades ago on another rain-shortened game.
If we're being honest, the Rays probably should have had this protest upheld and the game should have been replayed from where the infraction occurred. The rule is clear as day and even the most biased Blue Jays fan would have to agree that what John Gibbons did was against the rules:
A manager must exercise his challenge . . . before the commencement of the next play or pitch," and adds, "The next ‘play’ shall commence when the pitcher is on the rubber preparing to start his delivery and the batter has entered the batter’s box.
Major League Baseball denies Rays’ formal protest regarding Saturday’s game in Toronto.
If you were hoping for some sort of reasoning from the league on why they decided that the rules don't matter, then you're out of luck:
Rays protest denied by MLB. No formal reason given.
In a season that has had some unlucky moments, I guess we can be happy that some good fortune has finally come the Blue Jays' way.