BOSTON — Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy signaled to the umpiring crew to challenge a safe call during the first inning of Boston’s 8-2 loss to the Orioles on Thursday.

But Tracy was denied the challenge because he took too long. He exceeded the 15-second decision window.

It happened on Leody Taveras’ RBI single that put Baltimore ahead 2-0 with two outs in the first inning.

Tracy tried to challenge the safe call at third base after Samuel Basallo advanced from first to third on the single.

“First inning, first of all,” Tracy said. ”So you’re gonna look, look, look and make sure it’s really hard. And I think there was two or three angles he was trying to look at to see if we were sure. And it happens sometimes. If you’re gonna unload in the first thing, you gotta be sure he took a look. And sometimes you might be at risk — if it takes too long, it takes too long.”

Had the play been reviewed and the call overturned, the inning would have ended with Boston down 2-0. Instead, the Orioles went on to score four more runs off starter Brayan Bello that inning to take a 6-0 lead.