Immediately after the New York Yankees suffered what wound up being their only loss in the series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, manager Aaron Boone said the organization would explore the possibility of filing a protest with MLB.
Boone’s frustration stemmed from a sequence in the ninth inning that prevented the tying run from scoring on third base. With one out and runners on first and second, a grounder resulted in what was initially ruled a force out on a play that saw Brett Gardner take out Max Muncy with his slide into second base.
Gleyber Torres broke for home plate as Muncy writhed on the ground in pain, but was sent back to third. Boone came onto the field to argue with home-plate umpire Gabe Morales, who appeared to explain he had granted the Dodgers time after Muncy went down.
Amid that conversation, the Yankees challenged the out call at second base, which was overturned. Though, Kenley Jansen picked up back-to-back strikeouts to escape the bases-loaded jam with a thrilling save.
Although it doesn’t appear the Yankees moved ahead with their protest, they received word from MLB that Morales erred in granting the Dodgers time, per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com:
MLB also spoke to the Yankees about the time-out call at Dodger Stadium. In short, their message was that time shouldn’t have been called, sorry about that.
— Bryan Hoch (@BryanHoch) August 27, 2019
None of the various television camera angles of the play painted a conclusive picture. One appeared to show Jansen signal for time — and receive it — before Torres began to run toward home plate. Another suggested Torres had already left third.
Another layer to saga was Gardner’s slide. On the surface it appeared to be borderline in terms of legality under MLB’s rules. While the Yankees challenged the out call, the Dodgers asked the MLB Replay Center to review contact Gardner made with Muncy.
Muncy later said he did not believe Gardner’s slide was dirty, but he did feel it was illegal based on the contact his right hand made.
MLB seemingly admitting to the Yankees they were wronged made add to their frustration, but the matter for all intents and purposes now can be put to rest. At least until the teams possibly meet in the 2019 World Series.