What’s postseason baseball without a little controversy?
Fans were treated to quite the Game 5 of the National League Division Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park on Thursday night.
LA took a 2-1 lead in the top of the ninth inning to put San Francisco’s back against the wall. The Dodgers brought in Max Scherzer to make it that much more difficult, but the Giants were able to get a runner on base thanks to a Justin Turner bobble at third.
Wilmer Flores then stepped to the plate with two outs. Scherzer got out in front with an 0-2 count before chaos began.
Flores appeared to have checked his swing on the next pitch, but first base umpire Gabe Morales rang him up and ended the Giants’ hopes of moving on to the NL Championship Series. At first glance, it certainly looked like Flores held up, and several replays of the “swing” confirmed as much.
Check it out for yourself:
Yikes. This one probably will haunt Giants fans for a while.
If you’re going to end the game on a check-swing, you have to be 100% sure the batter went, and it’s clear as day that Flores’ bat never fully crossed home plate.
While Flores was 0-for-17 in his career against Scherzer, anything can happen when it comes to the postseason. So, we shouldn’t just assume Scherzer still would’ve taken care of business had the pitch been ruled a ball.
Simply put, it was a bad call that ended a great game.
The Dodgers now play the Atlanta Braves in the NLCS for a chance to go to the World Series.
