BOSTON -- Red Sox manager John Farrell confirmed Monday that the club's formal protest of Saturday's 4-1 loss to the Yankees has been denied by the league office.
The protest was the result of an odd baserunning play in which Yankees designated hitter Matthew Holliday was called out on a force at second, but slid back into first base to break up a double-play attempt.
Farrell says the result of the protest comes down to a misunderstanding between the two sides after receiving an answer.
"There's three or four different components," Farrell said on Monday. "One is the actual interpretation, two is if there's a direct impact on the outcome of the game. One of the other prominent words in the rule is that when there's a runner that is advancing … in this case, it was a runner that was retreating. But that's oil and water in terms of the two sides."
While the Red Sox didn't win, Farrell said the protest still influenced the league's awareness of that type of baserunning play.
"Any time you run into a situation where there's a potential that you instruct your runners to do a certain thing, or in other words carry out this play, that's where I think a lot of debate or further conversation will come in," Farrell said. "So if there's further rule clarity or a change in terminology or verbiage, we'll see where that goes."
At the end of the day, the league office's decision didn't surprise Farrell, who personally thinks replay could be taken further in the sport.
"I'm a little disappointed that this isn't a reviewable play," Farrell said. "When the umpires went to the headset the other night, it was for a rules interpretation, not to review the play. When replay starts to filter into judgment of umpires, I think that's where the line begins to be drawn. When replay was brought in, how far do you take this? I'd like to see everything be reviewable, to be honest with you, even check swings."