Bochy on Vogt being called out at third to potentially load the bases with no outs in the ninth: “I’d like to know what they’re looking at in New York… he was safe.” pic.twitter.com/2tEQXOzLlw
— KNBR (@KNBR) June 21, 2019
LOS ANGELES — Bruce Bochy did not need to be asked.
“I’d like to know what they’re looking at in New York,” the manager said, unprompted, after the Giants’ 9-8 loss Thursday at Dodger Stadium. “I saw it and I didn’t get it. I don’t get it and I wish they could show me what they saw.
“… From what I saw, he was safe at third.”
Bochy was livid after a four-run Giants rally in the ninth, which came up just short in thanks to a call that was not overturned. With Stephen Vogt at second and Joe Panik at first with no outs in a 9-8 game, Tyler Austin laid down a bunt down the first-base line. Cody Bellinger rushed in and threw to third, apparently in time. Replay review did not overturn the call, a fact the Giants were steaming about.
Giants challenge call that Stephen Vogt is out at 3B in the 9th; call stands, runner is out. Powered by @Mitel. pic.twitter.com/vMRrE2GJVP
— MLB Replays (@MLBReplays) June 21, 2019
“No accountability for these guys,” Buster Posey said. “Anything looks close, they can just say it was inconclusive. That seems to be the trend.”
Posey acknowledged the Giants will get an explanation, but it will be “that there wasn’t enough evidence to overturn it. That’s usually the explanation that we’ll get.”
The Giants had strung together six straight base-runners against the Dodgers’ bullpen, Kenley Jansen unable to put out the fire. After the call against Vogt, the balls stopped dropping. Posey lined a shot to center that Alex Verdugo just ran down. Brandon Belt’s 92.9-mph line drive to right would have dropped if the Dodgers hadn’t positioned Kyle Garlick so well.
“I’m not going to comment any further, but I know I beat that throw,” Vogt said, repeating that last phrase several times.
Posey would like to see more transparency from the reviews, though he was not sure what that would look like. He suggested “maybe we need to get some more cameras out there, something, that we can get some conclusive answers.”
The Giants had none but had many questions after dropping their third game in a row to the Dodgers. They entered the ninth down 9-4, and they were an overturned call away from the bases loaded with no one out, down one.
“I’d like to get one [explanation],” Bochy said. “I saw it on the scoreboard, I saw it after the game. It can be missed on replay. … You can’t have a bigger call go against you.”
Bochy was angry, slamming a book as he finished talking to reporters. The Giants clubhouse was quiet, a game billed as Madison Bumgarner’s goodbye to the rivalry turning on a ninth-inning rally that wasn’t to be.
Austin, the 6-foot-2, 220-pound slugger who placed the bunt well, said he couldn’t remember the last time he was asked to bunt. But he wasn’t surprised, he said, as he entered the at-bat 2-for-28 in his past 11 games.
He agreed with every other Giant that “I thought he was safe,” but while others pointed toward New York, Austin pointed at himself.
“Maybe they had an angle that we didn’t see,” Austin said. “Extremely frustrating that I didn’t get the job done.”