If the umpires had called the base runners out rather than safe on close plays in the bottom of the eighth inning Tuesday, perhaps the Tigers' 4-3 loss to the Chicago Cubs would have turned out much differently. Both were close plays, a force at second base in which it appeared Ramon Santiago barely kept his foot on the bag, and Prince Fielder did a nice stretch at first.
But here's the bottom line: Both those throws by Tigers shortstop Jhonny Peralta were terrible. They were easy plays turned into nightmares. It wasn't so much the Tigers got a tough break because of missed umpire calls as Peralta's unnecessarily turned them into close plays. He makes a good throw on either play, and it's not even an issue. The Tigers would have probably won the game because they had rallied against a club carrying a 20-40 record. Instead, it was arguably their most disappointing loss of the season. Any momentum they had gained from winning three of their previous four games was gone in an instant.