Nippon Professional Baseball apologized Monday after mistakenly ruling a home run a triple following a further examination of video footage from a game between the Hanshin Tigers and the Hiroshima Carp that took place on Saturday.
The game played at Koshien Stadium ended in a 2-2, 12-inning tie, even though it was later revealed that a hit by Hiroshima outfielder Kosuke Tanaka had cleared the center-field wall before rebounding onto the field.
NPB said it does not intend to correct the mistake or Tanaka's record, but apologized to the parties involved and promised to make efforts to prevent another such occurrence. It is the first time since the introduction of video rulings in 2010 that NPB has admitted to making a wrong call.
In the game in question, umpires ruled after watching video replay that Tanaka's line drive rebounded off the wall in the 12th inning but had not gone over.
However, Hiroshima made a request that the umpires involved as well Central League director general Kazuhide Kinefuchi and NPB head umpire Masato Tomoyose re-examine the video footage. The result showed that the ball had indeed cleared the wall.
"The main cause of this is umpires making assumptions," Kinefuchi said. "We have to be thorough with video rulings and not rely on preconceived notions."