Braves outfielder Jeff Francoeur is no fan of baseball’s replay system. So, he decided to express his displeasure with an animated rant on Tuesday night.
With the Braves attempting to rally in the ninth inning, Francoeur was ejected from the game after Ender Inciarte was called out at first base for the second out of the inning. It was close play as it appeared Inciarte might have beaten Indians pitcher Cody Allen to the bag, or arrived simultaneously.
“It’s pointless. I hate to say, but I don’t understand why we have replay when … I get it when it’s really close. But I went and looked at it 15 more times,” Francoeur said. “Inciarte’s foot might have beat him to the base, bam-bam, and if it didn’t he didn’t even have control of the ball, so it’s like, I just wonder what they’re looking at and what the plan is.”
After the call was upheld, Francoeur shouted in protest from the dugout, got ejected by first-base umpire and crew chief Hunter Wendelstedt, then threw his hat onto the field and marched towards the umpires in protest. He was restrained by the coaching staff.
“At one point Hunter Wendelstedt was asking me why I was yelling at him,” Francoeur said. “I get it, you’re talking to (umpires) in New York; it’s not that I’m yelling at him, I’m just yelling at the whole process.”
This season, the Braves have seemed to get the short end of more than their share of controversial replay calls. Some have been upheld after in the late innings of close games.
Inciarte believes the same thing happened Tuesday. If he had been on base when Freddie Freeman hit a triple in the ninth, he would’ve scored.
“For me it’s really frustrating because it seems like the review always happens to me, so I’m always the guy who’s waiting for the call,” he said. “ But as soon as he called me out, I knew what was coming, because it always happens the same way. I was mad. It was good to see Frenchy having our backs.”
Braves interim manager Brian Snitker defended the display by Francoeur.
“Just kind of emotion right there,” Snitker said. “Guys are fighting hard. We’ve been an emotional team for a while now, as you’ve seen in some of the games we’ve won. Guy wants to win; can’t fault anybody for that. I just wondered if had had control of the ball, that was my big thing.”
Inciarte said he hopes to see the Braves get a replay-review decision go in their favor eventually.
“I just hope it doesn’t keep happening because it’s been the whole year, just déjà vu,” he said. “We’re just going to do our thing and hopefully they realize they can maybe overturn it one time.”
