Safe call upheld on Tabata's infield single

PITTSBURGH -- Brewers manager Ron Roenicke fell to 1-for-2 in baseball's new system of instant replay Sunday after he unsuccessfully challenged a call at first base in a game against the Pirates.

Roenicke figured he was going to lose. With Pittsburgh runners at first and third, two outs and the score tied at 1 in the bottom of the eighth inning, Jose Tabata hit a ground ball up the middle. Brewers second baseman Scooter Gennett fielded it on his backhand and made a running throw to first, but Tabata beat it. Ike Davis scored on the play.

Roenicke challenged the call, and after just 36 seconds, the original call was confirmed.

"I thought he was [safe]," Roenicke said with a shrug. "I just went out there really because I have a challenge, I might as well use it."

After the start of the seventh inning, a manager who has already lost his challenge can still request the umpires take a second look. So Roenicke figured, why not?

"The one part about the challenges I don't care for is, in [innings] seven, eight and nine, if I have a challenge left and they've used theirs, there's no advantage," Roenicke said. "If I go out there, I have to use my challenge. [The opposing manager] doesn't have to. He can just walk out there and say, 'Can you look at it?' I don't like that part of it."