HBT: Lack of replay looms large in another no-no

Just like in Johan Santana?s no-hitter exactly a week ago, a close play that could have been overturned by replay loomed large in Seattle?s combined no-hitter against the Dodgers on Friday night.

Dee Gordon, maybe the National League?s fastest player, led off the bottom of the ninth with a broken-bat flare to shortstop against Tom Wilhelmsen. Brendan Ryan, just in the game as a defensive replacement, grabbed the ball and made a strong throw to first, getting the out call. Replay, however, showed that Gordon may have beaten the relay.

In this case, the evidence wasn?t so solid as last week?s fair-foul call on what should have been a Carlos Beltran double. The play at first base was so close there?s a good chance it wouldn?t have been overturned on whatever replay system baseball eventually implements. Still, it did look like Gordon was safe. Besides just disrupting the no-no, it was a huge call in what was just a 1-0 game at the time. It?s one of those calls MLB will someday need to make its best effort to get right, instead of just letting one man try to call it at real speed.

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