SAN DIEGO — Xander Bogaerts of the San Diego Padres had a home run overturned due to fan interference, and manager Mike Shildt was ejected for coming out of the dugout to talk to the umpires in the second inning of the game against the San Francisco Giants.
The call turned out to be critical because the Padres lost 4-3.
Bogaerts hit a flyball to left field that appeared to bounce out of Heliot Ramos’ glove and over the fence as two fans, including one in a Giants shirt, reached for it. The ball might have clipped one of the fans’ arms and, after a lengthy review, the home run call was overturned and Bogaerts was called out. Shildt was ejected immediately when he came out of the dugout.
Fans booed the rest of the inning.
“No contact. It was a big run. Huge,” Shildt said. “Listen, I don’t bark at the league a lot, but the definition that we got from replay was that it was clear that there was some impediment that took place. Clearly, he didn’t touch the baseball. … And if it’s so clear, how come it takes 2 minutes, 40 seconds to figure it out? What are you looking for? If it’s so clear, overturn it early and if it’s not, it’s a home run.
“That’s just really disappointing to go that long and have to come up with a conclusion that’s not conclusive to overturn a home run. It cost us an opportunity to win a baseball game. … I had a lot of time on my hands and if you can find an angle where the fan touched the baseball, I’d like to see it.”
Ramos wasn’t surprised the call was overturned.
“I did think I had it easier than that, but whenever I was about to catch it, I saw his arm was over me, kind of him, so I’m guessing it hit the arm or something. I saw the replay and it only shows the guy on the bottom, it doesn’t show the guy on the top, but he was like literally over me and his whole body was across the wall. It just clipped the finger a little bit. Before the ball got to my glove, he was already with his hands up.”
Ramos said the fan blocked his view “a little bit because I saw his shadow coming on top of me so I was kind of confused about it.”
Giants manager Bob Melvin said it appeared the fan “reached over. I think it just nicked him. Regardless, if your hand’s over it could affect his vision, too. You don’t see that call often but I think it was the right one.”
Ramos hit a leadoff homer against Nestor Cortes, one of three homers within the first five batters that gave the Giants a 4-0 lead.
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