MLB Changing History on Darvish No-Hit Bid

Major League Baseball has changed the call on a controversial play that ended Yu Darvish’s perfect game from last Friday night, now calling what was ruled an error a hit.

Darvish, pitching for the Texas Rangers against the Boston Red Sox, was hurling a perfect game through two-thirds of the seventh inning when David Ortiz lofted a pop fly into short right field. Second baseman Rougned Odor, who was already in short-right field because of Ortiz’s propensity for pulling the ball, stood in place to catch the ball when he thought he heard right-fielder Alex Rios call him off from catching the ball, and let the ball drop near him. Rios had backed off, but later admitted it was his play.

Official scorer Steve Weller called the play an error on Rios, preserving Darvish’s no-hitter, which he later lost on a two-out single in the ninth inning by Ortiz. So, ruling the seventh inning a hit wouldn’t have changed anything significant. Weller checked his decision, which according to replay appears correct, with the Elias Sports Bureau, citing Rule 10:12, which covers errors in the official scoring rules and states: “The official scorer shall charge an outfielder with an error if such outfielder allows a fly ball to drop to the ground if, in the official scorer’s judgment, at that position making ordinary effort would have caught such fly ball.” The bureau confirmed Weller’s decision.

But Ortiz appealed the decision to MLB, which overturned Weller’s call on Wednesday.