Rays, Cards make it a night of unsuccessful challenges

ST. PETERSBURG -- Both Rays manager Joe Maddon and Cardinals manager Mike Matheny had unsuccessful challenges in Tuesday night's Rays-Cardinals contest at Tropicana Field.

Maddon's challenge came in the first inning when, with no outs and a runner on first, Kevin Kiermaier hit a ground ball to first baseman Allen Craig, who threw to second for the first out. Shortstop Jhonny Peralta's relay to pitcher Adam Wainwright covering at first was ruled an out on a close play.

Only Maddon did not see the play in the same light as first-base umpire Jerry Layne and issued a challenge. After a review that lasted 2 minutes, 21 seconds, the umpires came back with a decision: The ruling on the field stands.

Matheny hoped to thwart a late Rays rally by getting a baserunner removed against reliever Trevor Rosenthal in the eighth. Pinch-hitter Jerry Sands was awarded first base when home-plate umpire Mike Estabrook ruled that Rosenthal's 1-1 pitch grazed Sands' elbow. That loaded the bases for the Rays, who were still trying to score their first run since Saturday.

After a review of one minute and 51 seconds, the call was announced to stand. Rosenthal worked out of the bases-loaded mess with a popup.

"Just typical -- you get the call, we had thumbs up on it, meaning there's a pretty good chance it's gonna be overturned. But when I saw the replay, I immediately saw that it was one of those inconclusive things, and then I knew that probably it was not gonna be overturned," Maddon said.

The Rays have had 22 challenges this season. Six have been overturned, eight have stood, and eight have been confirmed. Matheny has won just two of his nine challenges.

There was also a replay review initiated by the umpiring crew in the bottom of the ninth. Tampa Bay's Logan Forsythe led off the inning with a grounder to short, and he was called out on a close play at first.

After a quick review, the out call was confirmed.

"Listen, I want to make this point: I really appreciate the umpires, what they did in the ninth inning right there," Maddon said. "They didn't have to do that, but that's just the attempt to get things right, where they convened, and they actually looked at the play, I thought that was really solid on their part.

"I thought the umpires acted really professionally in that moment. Nobody thought that they got everything right, that they knew everything -- 'Listen, let's just check it out, it's too important a part of the game.' And I want to say to them that I appreciated it."