MLB must review replay system after yet another miserable failure during Dodgers-Cardinals finale

Jun 7, 2025; St. Louis, Missouri, USA;  Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts (50) hits a single against the St. Louis Cardinals during the ninth inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images
Jun 7, 2025; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts (50) hits a single against the St. Louis Cardinals during the ninth inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images | Jeff Curry-Imagn Images

On Sunday night in St. Louis, the Dodgers were cruising at the top of the second. Back-to-back singles from Max Muncy and Will Smith both came around to score on a Tommy Edman RBI single, and then Hyeseong Kim's first career triple scored Edman to put LA up 3-0 early. Cardinals starter Michael McGreevy got Michael Conforto to fly out and Shohei Ohtani to ground out, so Mookie Betts came up to try to score Kim.

Betts got a little jammed on an 0-1 sinker in, but he managed to poke it into very shallow center field. Shortstop Masyn Winn grabbed it and heaved it toward first base, but the throw was offline, forcing Willson Contreras off the bag as Betts came in.

But first base umpire Alan Porter initially called Betts out on the play, which the Dodgers immediately challenged. MLB employees in a dark room in New York studied the footage, but it was pretty clear that Betts was safe, as Contreras' foot was obviously off the bag when the ball entered his glove.

Apparently, New York somehow couldn't make heads or tails of it despite having access to every possible angle, and the call on the field stood. It got McGreevy out of the inning and Kim stranded at third.

MLB replay review totally dropped the ball with egregious Mookie Betts call in Dodgers-Cardinals finale

Umpires have come under even more scrutiny this year after the introduction of the ABS system in spring training, but this one can't totally be blamed on Porter when it was New York that ultimately made the call. The call stood, but wasn't confirmed, so New York sort of just threw their hands up and shrugged. But there was really no excuse to get that call wrong when MLB has a lot more footage and angles than fans see on TV.

The Dodgers ended up being okay without Kim scoring; Clayton Kershaw held the Cardinals to just a run through five innings, and even though Lou Trivino and Jack Dreyer both gave up a run apiece, Edman scored another in the top of the fourth, then added a third RBI in the eighth. Betts got his revenge with a solo homer in the seventh, and a passed ball allowed Max Muncy to score LA's seventh and final run of the game.

Still, it was a bad look for the folks in New York that cost the Dodgers a valuable run.