MLB upholds R.A. Dickey's one-hitter

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NEW YORK -- Major League Baseball has denied the New York Mets' request to have the official scoring changed in Wednesday's game against the Tampa Bay Rays, preserving R.A. Dickey's one-hitter.

The Mets had asked for a reversal of the scoring decision on B.J. Upton's first-inning infield single, claiming that third baseman David Wright committed an error on the play.

But Joe Torre, MLB's executive vice president, upheld the official scoring of the play on Friday. Dickey appreciated the Mets' efforts but felt there would be more of a focus on the decision rather than the accomplishment if the ruling had been overturned.

"I'm relieved," said Dickey, who missed throwing the second no-hitter in Mets franchise history.

Dickey surrendered the controversial hit when the speedy Upton bounced a grounder to Wright, who was unable to cleanly barehand the ball just in front of the third-base bag.

The Mets filed a formal appeal after the 9-1 victory, but manager Terry Collins acknowledged that he was not surprised by MLB's ruling.

"We didn't win," Collins said Friday. "We didn't expect to win it. We gave it a try. If we had won it, we would have had another no-hitter and we wouldn't have to wait another 50 years.

"[Dickey] has never had a no-hitter so you give it a shot. That is the process."

An MLB committee can reverse an official scorer's decision. Torre had stated that he would seek opinions from other people, including former St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa.

According to the Society of American Baseball Research, the lone no-hitter created after the fact was thrown by Ernie Koob of the St. Louis Browns against the Chicago White Sox on May 5, 1917.

A reversal would have given the Mets -- who had gone 8,019 games in franchise history without a no-hitter until Johan Santana performed the feat June 1 -- their second this month.

"Somebody said, 'Well, the Cardinals didn't ask for a review of Johan's no-hitter,'" Collins said. "Well, that is not the process. The process says that you can now appeal if it is a hit or an error.

"It is not an appeal if a ball is fair or foul. You don't do that. So we took advantage of the process, just like anyone else does in a process."

ESPNNewYork.com's Adam Rubin contributed to this report

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Andrew Marchand

ESPNNewYork.com

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Andrew Marchand is a senior writer for ESPNNewYork. He also regularly contributes to SportsCenter, Baseball Tonight, ESPNews, ESPN New York 98.7 FM and ESPN Radio. He joined ESPN in 2007 after nine years at the New York Post. Follow Andrew on Twitter »