Video malfunction leads to rules review at Miller Park

MILWAUKEE -- An equipment malfunction was behind the replay-related discussion at the end of the second inning of the Brewers' 8-3 victory over the Orioles on Wednesday night at Miller Park.

After Orioles shortstop J.J. Hardy made a terrific play to narrowly retire Jonathan Lucroy for the third out of the inning, Brewers manager Ron Roenicke engaged first-base umpire Dan Bellino and crew chief Jeff Kellogg in a long discussion before the umpires finally checked the replay.

The decision stood as called, but a press box announcement revealed that it was not an official manager's challenge. Roenicke later explained that technical difficulties were to blame.

"We got a memo," Roenicke said, "probably a week ago, stating that, if at the beginning of a ballgame, if one of the two [clubhouse video] systems goes out, you won't be able to use the systems during a ballgame. It will be all on the umpires. Which puts us in a little bit of a tough spot, because it's tough to challenge a play when we don't have systems.

"What happened was, [the Orioles'] system went down in the first inning. Well, it's completely different if the system does down in the first inning. It means we can keep our system on. Originally, Jeff had told me we need to turn our system off; then he came back and told me, 'No, you can have your system on and theirs off,' which, I don't know about that.

"So that's what all the discussion was, to try and figure out what we do. I asked him when I went out there, 'Listen, our system, you told me to shut it down, how do we go about this now? Do I challenge without having any review? Just what I see with my eyes?' They weren't 100 percent sure what we do when the system goes down in the middle of a game."

Wednesday marked the first technical issue with the replay hardware at Miller Park.