Red Sox fans melting down over Yankees replay controversy are ignoring the obvious

The Yankees, against all odds, secured a series victory over the Red Sox on Sunday with their third win of the four-game set, which will have massive implications on the playoff picture. New York took a four-game lead in the AL Wild Card race over Boston and captured the season series with a 7-6 advantage. We will not be going to Fenway Park in a tiebreaker situation. Relief.

But this one wasn't without controversy. In the bottom of the fifth, the Yankees rallied for five runs to take a 5-0 lead. Heliot Ramos had his first celebratory moment since arriving via trade after breaking the game open with a three-run homer off Ranger Suarez.

Before that, however, there was a replay situation that has stirred rightful debate. After Jose Caballero reached on an infield single, Jazz Chisholm Jr. looped a liner into right-center field. Ceddanne Rafaela covered a ton of ground coming over from center field and appeared to have made a spectacular diving catch.

He, in fact, may have. But the umpires ruled it a trapped ball on the field, which allowed Chisholm Jr. to reach safely and Caballero to advance to second base. The Red Sox challenged, but the call was upheld by MLB's replay review (it "stood" and was not "confirmed"). It was a horribly unlucky situation for Boston. Had the call been ruled a catch, it definitely wouldn't have been overturned, either.

The reality is that there was no definitive way for the replay review to determine that the ball didn't hit the grass after Rafaela got his glove under it. He landed awkwardly with his arm twisting away from his body and no angle was clear enough. To overturn it would've meant there was conclusive evidence to suggest the ball was secured all the way through.

After watching it about 20 times, we would honestly say this could've gone either way. We'll go that far to sympathize with Sox fans for a second because we know how incensed we would be if this happened to the Yankees.

Yankees-Red Sox replay controversy definitely mattered, but Boston is overreacting

But here comes the coping! Another official protesting moment for Red Sox fans! Their favorite thing to do. Take an insufferable stand until things go your way and then point and laugh at everybody else when they suffer a similar, unfortunate fate. In fact, Boston fans are the first people to tell you to "shut up and win" and that it's soft to let a replay miscue like this affect the outcome of the game.

In this case, we actually agree! Want to know why? Because this occurred with zero outs in the inning. It occurred with one runner on base. It occurred in a tie game. Suarez completely unraveling was totally separate from this incident.

Additionally, Caballero probably would have gone back to first base had the umpire ruled differently. Want to know why? Because he would've been on third base if he was running as if he unconcerned with the outcome of the play.

Perhaps the most important wrinkle of all, though? The Sox got stuffed into a locker by the Yankees' No. 5 starter, Will Warren. The right-hander allowed just one run on six hits and a walk over seven innings of work. Though those five innings before the Rafaela play, the Sox managed just two hits and a walk (and one of the hits was an infield single). They were dreadful this entire weekend, and one call not going their way hardly influenced the likely series outcome in the Yankees' favor.

The Yankees also took that momentum and scored nine more runs to win 16-1 (though six came against a position player pitching). They beat the Sox into the dirt on a day Roman Anthony and Trevor Story returned after months-long absences. Boston blew Friday night's game with a non-existent offense and some bad baserunning. Their only win came against Carlos Rodón, who has made just 12 starts this year and hasn't thrown six innings or more since June 10.

Red Sox fans told us for days that the Yankees were treating this weekend set like "their World Series" because of how they structured their starting pitching staff (even though it was a four-game series and they legally had to start four of their five members of the rotation). Or maybe — just maybe — they handled it perfectly, needing three wins at home to gain every possible advantage in the playoff seeding.

We'll expect there to be a lot of shouting and misguided insults hurled in the direction of Yankees fans on social media over the next 24 hours. No better time to enjoy the rest of your Sunday, celebrate a win, and get a good night's sleep. The Boston Cope Sox can yell into the void all night.

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