Craig Albernaz Calls on MLB to Fix Fair-Foul Technology After Alonso Controversy

Pete Alonso launched a deep fly ball down the left-field line in the bottom of the seventh inning on Wednesday night with the score tied at three.

The ball appeared to clear the wall in fair territory, and the dugout erupted before third base umpire Will Little signaled foul.

MLB's Replay Command Center reviewed the play and upheld the original call, stating it could not definitively determine that the ball left the playing field fair.

The Yankees scored twice in the eighth to win 5-3 and take the first two in the three-game series against the Orioles at Camden Yards.

Craig Albernaz did not hold back after that game.

The first-year manager has handled a difficult season with a steady voice, but the lack of technology on that call clearly frustrated him.

"It's 2026. I think technology has advanced pretty good," Albernaz said. "There were teams using AI on the iPads, and other sports use ball-tracking data for challengeable calls. Don't understand why we don't do it."

If the ball had been ruled fair, Alonso would have given Baltimore a 4-3 lead with what would have been his 30th home run of the season.

Instead, the at-bat continued and Alonso struck out.

The first baseman, who has been one of Baltimore's most consistent hitters since signing his five-year deal last winter, finished the night 1-for-4 with a solo home run in the third but could not hide his frustration with the replay process.

He pointed to the Hawk-Eye system used across tennis and other sports and questioned why baseball has not adopted something similar for fair and foul calls along the lines.

The loss dropped Baltimore to 61-66 at the time and left the Orioles one and a half games behind the third American League wild card spot.

They are now 61-67 after losing the last game of the series, but in a race where every game matters, that single call could have flipped the outcome of a game that carries a lot for a team just trying to stay alive.

Major League Baseball has invested heavily in pitch-tracking systems and the automated ball-strike challenge system that debuted in recent years, but fair and foul calls along the outfield lines remain untouched.

Chris Bassitt, who started Wednesday's game and serves on the MLBPA executive subcommittee, was just as blunt as his manager when asked why the cameras have not been installed yet.

He said the answer comes down to cost and nothing else, arguing that every fan, player, and coach in the sport would support the change.

The contrast with other leagues makes the gap weird.

The NFL uses pylon cameras with planes shooting across the goal line.

Tennis relies on Hawk-Eye for line calls that are far closer than what umpires are asked to judge on a 330-foot foul pole.

Even within baseball, the technology already exists to track the ball in three dimensions on every pitch.

Applying it to fair and foul calls feels like priority rather than capability, and Albernaz's frustration reflects a clubhouse that has dealt with enough setbacks already this season without losing winnable games to calls that better cameras could settle in seconds.