Victor Martinez: Disputed Home Run Stands After Umpire Replay

Victor Martinez hit a (maybe) controversial game-tying home run off Athletics reliever Sean Doolittle in the seventh inning of the ALDS Tuesday night in Detroit.

Oakland rightfielder Josh Reddick made a play for the ball, timed his jump … and it landed somewhere among the fans huddled over the railing in right.

Reddick and Coco Crisp immediately pointed to fans, pleading for interference. A’s skipper Bob Melvin asked and the umpires reviewed the play. It was hard to tell that the ball wouldn’t have gone over the railing whether or not the fans touched it and it was called a home run. The umpires got it right … we think. If we’re going by the NFL standard of irrefutable video evidence it would have been very hard to overturn the call.

Reddick made a nice effort on it but he would have needed some serious ups to pull that one down. The homer tied the game at 4-4 and the Tigers took the lead later in the inning on Austin Jackson’s broken bat single, which dropped about one step in front of Reddick.