Brandon Phillips to appeal for inside-the-park homer – MLB News
The Monday game between The Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians may well be over, the controversy is not. The sensational encounter which ended with the Cleveland Indians’ 10-9 victory had its share of exhilaration, and – to a greater extent, controversy too.
It was Brandon Phillips who now says he will appeal to the Major League Baseball to review a decision wherein his hit was considered RBI double, but which – in Phillips’ view, was an inside-the-park homer.
It was in the fifth inning that Phillips had hit the ball to left-field line, enabling him to circle the bases as the Cleveland Indians’ Johnny Damon stumbled to pick up the ball. With Damon struggling to take the ball and throw, Phillips made his way to the home plate after a big headfirst slide.
But his effort, and the hope that it would be an inside-the-park home run, does not seem to have borne fruit until and unless the Major League Baseball comes up with the final decision.
For Phillips, it was a home run, but to make it possible, he has to earn it. He said it would have been declared a homer if he was in Cincinnati.
"I saw the replay last night. Everybody said I should [appeal]," Phillips said on Tuesday. "Maybe they can turn it around. I thought it was a home run, especially how [the Cubs'] Tony Campana had a similar play. Hopefully they can change it. If we were in Cincinnati, it would be a home run. But we're in Cleveland. You know how that is. They won't give me [anything] at all. I've got to earn it here."
Phillips went on and tried to explain it further. "Once you try to make that effort, crazy things happen," Phillips said. "Outfielders take a gamble when they dive for a ball coming in.”
If the MLB reverses the decision and calls it an inside-the-park homer, it will be definitely quite interesting to see what happens to the result of the game which – for now, has the Cleveland Indians as the victor in the eagerly watched and followed encounter.
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