The Los Angeles Dodgers vs. San Francisco Giants NLDS had a rather unceremonious conclusion.
While the Dodgers seemed to have the game in hand, as San Francisco's Wilmer Flores was down to his last strike against Max Scherzer in the bottom of the ninth, it was an umpire's check swing call that ultimately ended the game, and in effect the season for the Giants.
That's the call that ends the great battle between the Dodgers and Giants this season? That's BAD pic.twitter.com/NVw8bhiFIR
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) October 15, 2021
First-base umpire Gabe Morales spoke out to a pool reporter after the game, explaining the call that led to the Dodgers' rabid celebration.
Via ESPN:
“Check-swings are one of the hardest calls we have,” said Morales on the call that pushed the Dodgers to the NLCS. “I don't have the benefit of multiple camera angles when I'm watching it live. When it happened live I thought he went, so that's why I called it a swing.”
When asked whether he still thought it was a swing after seeing the replay, it was crew chief Ted Barrett who answered in his stead. His stance
“Yeah, no, we, yeah, yeah, he doesn't want to say,” said Barrett.
There's no replay review for check swings, nor can they anything change the outcome of Dodgers-Giants Game 5 at this point. While a strong majority see the call as erroneous, Barrett probably wanted to minimize the blowback instead of having Morales admit that he erred, had he believed as such.
It's a tough way to go for the Giants, whose magical 107-win season came to a halt in such an anti-climactic fashion. Now their division-rival Dodgers move on as they pursue the first back-to-back World Series wins in over two decades.
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