Why Umps Reviewed Willson Contreras Home Run, Didn’t Overturn in Red Sox-Yankees
The Boston Red Sox nearly had their first run of the 2026 MLB playoffs taken away.
Willson Contreras blasted an opposite field solo home run at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday night. But the umpires went to instant replay review. They wanted to see if the home run should count.
If it did, it would cut the New York Yankees‘ lead to 2-1.
If it didn’t, it would’ve incited quite the firestorm.
In the end, they came back from review and counted the homer.
It was a brief moment of confusion, though.
Why Did Umps Review Willson Contreras Home Run?
In essence, the umpires wanted to see if the batted ball from Contreras had cleared the wall.
Because of the way fans are positioned, they have the possibility of reaching over the wall and grabbing a ball that wasn’t going to go out.
A fan caught the Contreras homer straight in his glove, and it looked close.
What Would’ve Happened?
If they ruled that the ball wasn’t out of the park, the umpires would then make a judgment call on where Contreras should be.
Since Trent Grisham wasn’t near the ball to catch it, it doesn’t have to be an interference out.
Instead, they likely would’ve given Contreras a ground-rule double.
Why Didn’t They Overturn?
The official call on the field was that it was “confirmed.”
That means the replay showed that, without a doubt, the ball had cleared the point that it needed to to be a homer.
The NBC broadcast said that as long as it made it to the concrete shown beyond the wall’s padding, it was a homer.
While the replay angles on the broadcast looked close, evidently it was good enough to stick with the call that had been made on the field.
Willson Contreras goes yard to give the Red Sox their first run of the series 🫡
(via @MLB) pic.twitter.com/tsA9P3Yeja
— B/R Walk-Off (@BRWalkoff) October 1, 2026
Slow trot
The postscript to the home run was that Contreras took a long, long time to get around the bases.
Yankees pitcher Max Fried didn’t seem to be too much of a fan of it.
In the old days, something like that might’ve resulted in a batter getting hit in a later at bat. Ironically, Contreras is often very perturbed when other teams hit him with a pitch, intentional or otherwise.
In this case, Contreras simply was milking the moment. It was a huge swing for him and his team.
And after a review, it stood as it appeared to be — a home run to cut the lead in half in what would be an elimination game if the Red Sox lost.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
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