Mlb 2012!

triggercut · 2012-10-05T15:56:28.000Z

Told myself I really didn’t care about this game all week because I really don’t think the Cardinals have a particularly good team for the playoffs this year…

…but now I’d sort of like them to win.

sluggo · 2012-10-05T16:01:04.000Z

I think the reality of the playoffs now is: once you’re in (or as is the case this year, once you’re past the wild card round), you’ve got as good a shot as anyone. If the Cards survive this game, it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see them give the Nats a run for their money.

sluggo · 2012-10-05T16:02:46.000Z

Wow, that was so awful I might give Uggla three errors for that play. :)

triggercut · 2012-10-05T16:09:43.000Z

Joe Sheehan ‏@joe_sheehan

We haven’t seen this many off-target throws in Atlanta since Joey Harrington was in town.

sluggo · 2012-10-05T16:11:04.000Z

Jeez, it’s like the entire Atlanta infield has forgotten how to throw a baseball.

ineffablebob · 2012-10-05T16:16:01.000Z

I know they say the postseason is a new season, but that doesn’t mean you have to play like it’s the first day of spring training. The Braves deserve to lose this one. The only question now is whether the Cardinals can self-destruct even worse in the late innings.

triggercut · 2012-10-05T16:26:33.000Z

What would happen if Jose Costanza hit a ground ball off Andy Benes to Pete Kozma? Would the universe explode into Seinfeldy craziness?

robsam · 2012-10-05T16:43:57.000Z

I can only say I watch baseball like most of you guys watch soccer, I pay attention when the stakes are high. This Braves-Cards game is literally the first baseball game I have watched this year. When I got into it the Braves were up 2-0, within three minutes of real time they trailed 3-2. Go Braves! Damn it.

sluggo · 2012-10-05T16:51:25.000Z

At the start of this inning, I was wondering, does Chipper Jones have one more at bat left in his career and OH MY GOD HE DROPPED THE BALL WHAT THE

sluggo · 2012-10-05T16:51:47.000Z

No way, they’re calling this an infield fly? Wow.

robsam · 2012-10-05T16:55:28.000Z

I have no idea what happened, I left the room for five minutes, now the Atlanta “fans” are pelting the field with debris?? What the hell??

sluggo · 2012-10-05T16:59:47.000Z

For anyone who’s following from an online gamecast or can’t see video:

it’s 1st and 2nd for the Braves, 1 out. The entire season could be riding on this. Guy hits a high pop to short left, maybe 30 feet into the outfield. Shortstop loses the ball and it drops in behind him. The runners scramble forward, it’s bases loaded and one out.

Except the left field umpire – an extra umpire added for the playoffs – has called the infield fly rule, so the batter is out and it’ll be 1st and 2nd with two outs. And it looks like he called it late, and the announcers are speculating that maybe that threw off the shortstop and that’s why he dropped it.

But whatever the case, it’s a pretty iffy and definitely controversial call, and no one would have batted an eye if it was called a flat out error, and the Atlanta fans have revolted and pelted the field with debris, and it’s been over five minutes already and they’ve had to pull the players from the field. Crazy.

ineffablebob · 2012-10-05T17:00:35.000Z

Stranger than fiction. You can’t make this shit up. The Cards totally screw up a fly ball to short left, the left field umpire calls it a infield fly, and then Turner Field goes apeshit and crap’s all over the field.

I’ve watched a lot of baseball, and that might be the most blatantly wrong call I’ve ever seen. The other umps could have overruled it, no idea why they didn’t.

Having said that, there’s still no excuse for throwing debris on the field.

triggercut · 2012-10-05T17:01:31.000Z

Terrible, terrible call by the umpire out there.

And it’ll be runners and 2nd and 3rd when play resumes. Runners may advance on infield fly “at own risk”.

curst · 2012-10-05T17:05:13.000Z

I’m rooting for the Cards and yet I cannot believe that call. Doesn’t the fly ball, by definition, have to be in the infield for them to invoke the infield fly rule?

ineffablebob · 2012-10-05T17:10:21.000Z

The rule:

MLB.com:

An INFIELD FLY is a fair fly ball (not including a line drive nor an attempted bunt) which can be caught by an infielder with ordinary effort, when first and second, or first, second and third bases are occupied, before two are out.

A shortstop back-pedaling into left field is not “ordinary effort”.

MLB.com:

When it seems apparent that a batted ball will be an Infield Fly, the umpire shall immediately declare “Infield Fly” for the benefit of the runners.

The call was really late. The ball had almost dropped already.

Horrible call. I don’t even really care about this game (much more interested in the AL side of the playoffs), but even I’m upset about how poorly this has been handled.

sluggo · 2012-10-05T17:12:07.000Z

They’re just starting to play again now, almost 20 minutes after this started, and the runners have been placed at 2nd and 3rd with two outs. If this batter makes out, I think we’re going to see more debris and another delay.

triggercut · 2012-10-05T17:15:19.000Z

Cardinals bullpen meltdown in progress.

sluggo · 2012-10-05T17:18:14.000Z

Anyway, the thought I was having when this insanity started: Will Chipper Jones get another at-bat before this is done? Thanks to that last walk, he’ll be up third in the 9th.

triggercut · 2012-10-05T17:21:31.000Z

curst:

I’m rooting for the Cards and yet I cannot believe that call. Doesn’t the fly ball, by definition, have to be in the infield for them to invoke the infield fly rule?

Seen plenty of Infield Fly Rule calls on balls popped up shallowly onto the outfield grass, but always when an infielder was clearly parked under the ball to make the play. Never on a ball hit to the medium OF.