MIAMI – Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez's second successful challenge of an umpire's call in as many days gave Julio Teheran another pickoff Sunday.
Teheran threw to first base after Christian Yelich led off the Marlins’ first inning with a single. First-base umpire Sean Barber called Yelich safe, but Gonzalez challenged the call after getting the signal relayed from video-replay coordinator Horacio Ramirez, who thought first baseman Freddie Freeman tagged Yelich’s hand before he reached the base.
After the play was reviewed on replay, the call was overturned and Yelich was called out. It was the 14th pickoff for Teheran since the beginning of the 2013 season, more than twice as many as any other right-handed pitcher had in that span before Sunday.
For Gonzalez, it was the 22nd successful challenge in 31 attempts this season in the first year of expanded video replay. In the ninth inning Saturday, he challenged a call at first base when Jordany Valdespin was called safe with two out on a ground ball to Freeman, who tossed to pitcher David Carpenter covering the base.
Carpenter had to reach back to catch the ball and make the tag while twisting on the run. But replays showed he tagged Valdespin and the called was overturned, ending the inning with the score 3-3.
The Braves won on Evan Gattis’ 10th-inning homer that was originally a triple off the center-field wall, yet another play that was overturned by the umpires. The umps conferred on their own before Gonzalez could even challenge that call, and replays showed the ball hit above a yellow line on the wall, which differentiates homers from balls still in play.
