The Baltimore Orioles’ 5-3 defeat to the New York Yankees on Wednesday was especially frustrating due to a highly controversial call during a key moment.
In a 3-3 game in the bottom of the seventh inning, red-hot Orioles slugger Pete Alonso stepped to the plate against Yankees left-handed reliever Brent Headrick. Alonso, who homered earlier in the contest, seemed to hit his second home run of the game and give the Orioles the lead with a towering fly ball down the left field line.
However, third base umpire Will Little called the moonshot a foul ball, stunning Alonso and the Baltimore dugout. Even after manager Craig Albernaz requested a replay review that seemed to confirm that the ball stayed inside the foul pole, the original call surprisingly stood. Alonso struck out three pitches later to end the inning, as the crowd at Oriole Park at Camden Yards booed in outrage of the call.
The Yankees went on to score a pair of runs in the top of the eighth inning and held on to secure a series victory. But the foul ball call remained the big topic of discussion, especially given how important the game was for both teams.
Pete Alonso and Craig Albernaz Advocate for Replay Technology
A major reason why Albernaz was surprised that the call stood was that the ball-tracking technology the Orioles were using on their iPads in the dugout showed that Alonso’s fly ball was fair.
This prompted the first-year skipper to suggest the introduction of more definitive replay technology to determine fair or foul calls in the future.
“There’s ball-tracking data,” Albernaz said to the media. “It’s really tough to have that come back as stands and have that visual in the dugout… It’s 2026. I think technology has advanced pretty good. There were teams using AI on the iPads, and other sports use ball-tracking data for challengeable calls. I don’t understand why we don’t do it.”
When Alonso commented about the call after the game, he made his own suggestion about determining these kinds of calls, while also revealing why Major League Baseball hasn’t done it.
“We have Hawk-Eye. Like, football, you have the pylon camera with the plane where it shoots right across the goal line,” Alonso said. “I think having a camera or laser shooting straight up, we have all the technology, analytics and funds. I don’t see why we can’t do it.
“The reason why I’ve been told we can’t do it is because every ballpark is different and that every ballpark is unique, it’s not the same dimensions everywhere. So that’s my understanding of it.”
Regardless of the frustrating outcome, the Polar Bear refused to use the foul ball call as an excuse for Baltimore’s eventual defeat.
“Obviously, it sucks for us,” he said. “But it is what it is. The umpire made the call on the field, and the review room stood with that call, and that’s what we have to live with and move on. We have to, as a team and individually, bear down and respond to adversity.”
Orioles starting pitcher Chris Bassitt, on the other hand, didn’t mince words when discussing the call. Bassitt, who started Wednesday’s game and is Baltimore’s MLBPA representative, accused MLB of not instituting fair or foul technology because of its cost.
“It’s just the fact that we don’t have the technology in place to actually say, ‘Hey, this was fair or foul,’ is literally crazy in 2026,” Bassitt said. “You ask every fan of this game, that’s a true fan, every single fan would want those cameras. If you ask every single player, they would want those cameras. If you ask every coach, they want the cameras. It costs money. That’s it. That’s literally it.”
Ultimately, the Orioles dropped to 61-66 and have lost three in a row. Despite their mediocre record, Baltimore is just 1.5 games out of the final Wild Card spot in the American League.
The Orioles will aim to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Bronx Bombers tonight at 6:35 PM EST. Kyle Bradish will get the ball and face Gerrit Cole.
