Crazy baseball game!

[loborick]

Padres scored 2 runs on a home run in the top of the 13th. Rockies come back to win it with three runs in the bottom of the 13th on two doubles and a triple then a sac fly that it looks like the runner missed the plate but the ump called him safe!

[Protege1212]

It was a crazy game, don't know how many people stayed up to watch on the east coast, but it was very exciting. Knowing the winner was going to play the Phillies, I was hoping it would go 20 innings. :D

[loborick]

I don't think Holliday touched the plate. What does everyone else think?

[Yakkacat25]

I don't think Holliday touched the plate. What does everyone else think?

He Didn't. In real time it's a tough call for the Umpire...that play happened so fast! Holiday was clearly out...he didn't even touch the plate. To me the Umpire was way out of position on that one. There's needs to instant replay on an instance like this.

[loborick]

He never touched the plate, but he was never tagged either! What a crazy play!

[Roob]

Looks like I missed a great game. Did Trevor Huffman blow this save as well?? If so, what a horrible way to end the season with 2 blown saves.

I saw the play at the plate on the local news. The camera angle on the newscast doesn't provide a good enough view for me to say yay or nay on whether he touched the plate. However, the umpire did signal safe before Holliday ever made any move back to the plate. If the umpire believes the runner hasn't been tagged out and that the runner hasn't touched the plate, then he makes no signal (neither out nor safe). If the runner is not subsequently tagged out, then the run scores and he was presumed to be safe. In this case the umpire signalled safe, so in his mind he thought the runner had touched the plate. What a way to finish the season. Gotta' go with the Rockies in the playoffs after that fantastic finish. Apologies to Protege. The Phillies had their own fantastic finish, just not as dramatic as the Rockies who had to go 14-1 to get there.

[judas_priest]

The catcher was moving over to tag him but stopped when the umpire signaled safe. FWIW I though he failed to touch the plate.

GO PHILLIES!

[loborick]

Yep, Hoffman blew that one also. He blew two saves that would have clinched the wild card for the Padres. Tough way to end the season. He took full responsibility too.

[Roob]

Hey, here's the umpires account of that call.

I'm also going to razz my buddy, Garish a bit on this one. Is it possible he was at the game and affected the outcome? I know it's a longshot, but hey, someone's gotta' ask, no?


Umpire Tim McClelland admitted questioning himself about the safe call at home plate late Monday that capped Colorado's come-from-behind win against San Diego in the 13th inning of the National League's wild-card tiebreaker — but said he had the best vantage point possible and would make the call again.
"Watching reply later, I had a little doubt," McClelland said Tuesday in a telephone interview with The Des Moines Register. "But if I had to call it again, I'd call it the same way."

San Diego led 8-6 heading into the bottom of the 13th before Colorado mounted a rally against closer Trevor Hoffman.

The final run came on Matt Holliday's head-first slide as Padres catcher Michael Barrett failed to catch the throw home, but turned and tagged Holliday after he slid past.

Television replays were not conclusive as to whether Holliday initially touched the plate.

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"Michael Barrett stuck out his leg, but he didn't have it planted in the ground," McClelland said. "What I saw was Holliday kind of slide through that leg and touch the plate."

The Padres did not argue the call and McClelland said he did not hear from Barrett, relief pitcher Trevor Hoffman or Padres manager Bud Black after the play.

McClelland, 55, is in his 25th major league season.

Some questioned why McClelland waited to make the call at the plate.

McClelland said he was trying to analyze the entire play.

"The reason I waited was to see if Michael even had held onto the ball, but the ball got away (even though I thought he was safe)," he said. "It's really not my style anyway."

McClelland, who has worked the World Series four times, a league championships series seven times, a league division series five times and All-Star game three times, said he watched replays later to gauge his position to make the play.

"There was no position I could've been in to see it any better," he said. "I might have gotten a different look at it, but I don't think I would've gotten a better look at it."

Barrett was quoted after the game on the incident: "I've never, ever second-guessed Tim McClelland at home plate. And when he told me he was safe, there was no argument in my mind."

McClelland also said the six-man crew unanimously ruled that Colorado's Garrett Atkins missed a home run in the seventh with the Rockies leading 6-5.

Replays on TV made it appear that it was possible the ball hit a wheelchair just over the fence and bounced back into play. Again, though, replays did not appear to be conclusive.

[loborick]

Tough game to ump last night. You do what you can at the time. I still think Holliday didn't touch, but it really doesn't matter.

[PitCrowd]

Like LoboRoob I only saw the play on a news highlight and I've only seen it one time at that and it appears that he missed the plate. It was a bad camera angle. I agree with Tim Kurtchen, excuse my spelling, from ESPN and I do not want to see instant replay in baseball. Way to many judgement calls in baseball.