Cardinals overcome bad break in NLDS Game 4 after bizarre play is deemed not reviewable
In one of the more bizarre plays you’ll see in baseball, St. Louis Cardinals NLDS Game 3 hero Kolten Wong took a half-swing at a Clayton Kershaw curveball that bounced well in front of home plate during the fifth inning of Tuesday’s Game 4, and actually made contact, sending the ball into fair territory.
The fact that Wong actually made contact was strange enough, and seemed to confuse just about everybody watching, including the umpires and players on the field. That surprised reaction possibly led them to missing what actually happened, which was something else entirely, yet strange in its own right.
As replays showed, Wong awkwardly chopped the ball off his own leg while he was still standing in the batter’s box, which by rule is a foul ball and a dead ball. The ball then slowly trickled into fair territory, which is what everyone except Wong reacted to initially. As the Dodgers completed the play in slow motion, Wong made a late attempt to get up the line, but the ball beat him and he was ruled out by the umpires to end the inning.
Of course, that was hardly the end of it. Cardinals manager Mike Matheny confronted home-plate umpire Eric Cooper to inquire about a review. A review that, if granted, would have definitely changed the result and allowed Wong’s fifth-inning at-bat to continue. Instead, Matheny was informed the play wasn’t reviewable under MLB’s new expanded replay system.
Apparently he was also informed that none of the other five umpires spotted what happened either, which is another troubling layer to the play.
For all the good review has done to ensure missed calls are corrected, it’s a little strange that something as easily fixable as this play doesn’t meet the standard. It literally would have taken the umpires handling reviews in New York seconds to overturn it. The flow of the game would not have been altered in the slightest, and St. Louis would have gotten the extra out owed to it.
Given how well Kershaw was rolling at the time, it may not have made a difference at that time, but perhaps delaying the sixth inning would have benefited St. Louis to some degree. The Dodgers rallied for two runs to grab a 2-0 lead while knocking Cardinals’ starter Shelby Miller out of the game.
Ironically, that inning would end on a replay review, as Matheny challenged a pickoff at third base resulting in Andre Ethier being ruled out. Since the Cardinals did ultimately rally, the convertroversial play itself is rendered moot. That said, the non-reviewable issue could be an interesting talking point as an easily corrected play nearly played a role in a postseason game.
The system is not yet perfect, but perhaps this will help bring us one step closer.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
