Red Sox Manager John Farrell: 'Hard to Have Faith' in Replay

John Farrell became the first manager to get ejected for arguing a replay decision after getting tossed by first base umpire Bob Davidson in the fourth-inning of Sunday's 3-2 loss to the Yankees. (Adam Hunger/ USA Today Sports)

MLB’s newly instituted replay system was expected to have some growing pains in its inaugural season in 2014. However, the system has done more harm than good early on, providing the league with more headaches for disputed calls than ever before.

The Boston Red Sox have been victimized by the replay system in each of their past two games, both losses against the archrival New York Yankees.

In Saturday’s contest, Red Sox manager John Farrell asked umpires to review a call at second base, where the Yankees’ Dean Anna was ruled safe on a play that replay showed he was undoubtedly out. The call stood after video review, though. After the game, MLB admitted the call should have been overturned.

On Sunday night, Farrell was ejected after arguing a call in the fourth inning that was reviewed on replay after umpires reversed their original ruling on what would have been an inning-ending double play.

Initially, Yankees' Francisco Cervelli was properly called out at first after he grounded to Red Sox third baseman Ryan Roberts, who threw to second to force out Kelly Johnson, before Red Sox second baseman Jonathan Herrera fired it over to first baseman Mike Napoli in what should have ended the inning.

"On the heels of yesterday and today, this is a tough pill to swallow,” Farrell told MLB.com’s Ian Browne. “It's extremely difficult to have any faith in the system, the process that's being used."

The reversal gave the Yankees a run on a call that was clearly correct before the umpires reviewed and wrongly overturned it. This run proved to be the difference for the Yankees in a 3-2 victory. Lacking conclusive evidence even after review, Farrell was justly furious after the call was upturned.

"We felt that it was clear that the replay was inconclusive," Farrell said, via Jason Mastrodonato of MassLive.com. "The frustrating part is when this was rolled out and explained to us, particularly on the throw received by the first baseman, we were instructed that when the ball enters the glove, not that it has to hit the back of the glove, is where the out is deemed complete.”

"At the same time, any angle that we looked at, you couldn't tell if the foot was on the bag behind Mike Napoli's leg. Where this became conclusive is a hard pill to swallow."

Former manager and current MLB executive Tony La Russa implores Farrell to give the new system time to fix its initial bugs.

"One thing I'd say to John -- and I'd love to talk to him because I have great respect for him -- is that, in fairness to the process, we need to keep working at it," said La Russa, via Jayson Stark of ESPN.com. "I don't know what the period of time is, whether it's a month or six weeks or whatever it is, but we all have learned from what we've seen.”