Don Mattingly: 'I'm sure we're going to have expanded replay next year'

A play in the top of the first inning of the Dodgers' 2-1 loss to the Pirates didn't go the Dodgers way and proved not to be reviewable. The play ended up angering both Dodgers manager Don Mattingly and home plate umpire Paul Nauert.

Reviewable plays

With Dee Gordon on second base, nobody out and a 3-1 count in the first inning, Chone Figgins laid down a bunt just in front of home plate (he was bunting on his own, for a hit, Mattingly said after the game). The ball bounced up and hit Figgins as he was leaving the batters box, but after Figgins ran safely to first base without a throw he was called out for batter interference, for touching the ball in fair territory.

Mattingly came out to argue, but the play was not reviewable.

That did not sit well with Mattingly, who wanted Nauert at the very least to ask his fellow umpires for help on the play. Replays appeared to show the ball hitting Figgins while he was in the batters box, which would have meant a foul ball rather than an out.

"I was trying to get him to ask help, I don't know how he called that," Mattingly said. "I'm sure we're going to have expanded replay next year. I don't know how he can call that. I watched it from the dugout, it was pretty clear.

"But complaining about it now isn't going to do anything."

But as Mattingly and Nauert were arguing near home plate, replays were being shown on the video boards at Dodger Stadium. The admittedly partisan crowd booed loudly as they saw the ball hitting Figgins in the batters box rather than out of it, and boos rained down on the out call.

Nauert looked up at the press box and made a cut gesture, as if to stop showing the replays.

As part of the new instant replay rule though, the folks who run the Dodger Stadium video board were will within their bounds to show the play, though perhaps by the letter of the law and not the spirit.

"Clubs will now have the right to show replays of all close plays on its ballpark scoreboard, regardless of whether the play is reviewed," the rule reads.