The Dodgers Are Convinced They Got A Hit

Jake Arrieta’s no-hitter had one close call: Kike Hernandez’s hard-hit ball to Starlin Castro in the third inning that the Dodger Stadium official scorer ruled an error. At the time, no one figured it would matter, but after the game players insisted they deserved to be one-hit.

Take a look and make the call:

Every Dodger the all the way up to Don Mattingly, said they believe it should have been ruled a hit. Adrian Gonzalez says a number of the Cubs admitted as such:

“Are you kidding me? I asked five of their players when they were on base. They all said it should have been a hit.”

Arrieta himself said that “initially I thought it was a hit,” before giving the more political “it was a tough play, it could have gone either way” answer. But no one’s opinion matters beyond that of Jerry White, the official scorer. White is standing by his call, and said after making his decision he went back and looked at two replays to confirm.

“The ball was hit right at him,” White said. “Hit hard, but ordinary effort. I thought if he stays down on the ball, he makes the play. He came up thinking the ball was coming up. When he did, the ball kicked off his mitt and, in my opinion, E4.”

Hard to get too upset about an error call; would have been hard to get too upset about it being ruled a hit. But as every Dodger made sure to mention, it doesn’t really matter in the end. A loss is a loss, and a no-hitter feels better for the guy throwing it than it feels bad for the team being blanked. (Still, it would be delightfully dickish if the Dodgers were to appeal the scorer’s call—or if White decided to change it on his own.)

[ Los Angeles Times]