NEW YORK -- Joe Girardi thought he was given a generous amount of time to state his case to umpiring crew chief Dana DeMuth in the eighth inning of Tuesday's 5-3 Opening Day loss -- in fact, the manager walked back to the dugout slightly surprised that he had not been ejected.
Girardi's argument following Carlos Correa's possible interference on a dribbler fielded by Dellin Betances ultimately produced no change in the outcome, and though DeMuth signaled that the Yankees would play the rest of the game under protest, no paperwork was filed with the league office.
"We did not file a protest," Girardi said on Wednesday. "Our feeling was that the rules stated that it's in the umpire's judgment if the first baseman can catch it. I'm not crazy about the rule. I still think if [Correa is] running where he's running, it impedes the pitcher from throwing."
Correa was clearly running on the infield grass, but DeMuth said that he did not believe Correa hindered a fielder from making a play. DeMuth said that Betances' throw "was so high that, in my judgment, that was just an error, a bad throw."
Girardi said he was told that if Betances had hit Correa in he back with a throw, rather than attempt to float a toss over the runner, Correa would have been called out for interference.
"Your only recourse is to throw it and hit him in the back," Girardi said. "Maybe it's something we have to think about in Spring Training, working on. You put a dummy out there and if he's in the path and on the grass, you've got to throw it and hit him. Because if he tries to do what Dellin did, it usually leads to what happened."
Girardi said that he hoped the league will provide additional clarification of the rule, but any official protest of the judgment call would have likely been futile. Since the George Brett "pine tar" game in 1983, only two protests have been upheld. Both concerned weather, the most recent happening in an August 2014 game between the Giants and Cubs.