CHICAGO (KMOX) - After the St. Louis Cardinals scored twice in the top of the ninth inning to take 4-2 lead, even the umpires took their best shot at ending the franchise-record winning streak.
They couldn't.
In the bottom of the ninth, with one out and runners on first and second, a high pop up down the third base line fell in fair territory after a slip by Nolan Arenado. It ended with both runners advancing and the batter being called out on an infield fly rule - but manager Mike Shildt wasn't having that. Here's the play:
It should have been the end of the game, as the batter was called out on the infield fly and then the Cubs players who strayed off second base was tagged for the final out of the game. But the umpires let the wandering base runner off the hook for some reason that Shildt, his fellow coaches and many on Twitter couldn't understand.
Thankfully for St. Louis, it didn't matter. Closer Giovanny Gallegoes got the next batter to strike out to extend the franchise-best winning streak to 16 games.
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After the game, umpire decline to comment on what took place on that 9th inning play. But Shildt didn't mind talking about it.
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“There’s a lot going on in that play,” Shildt said. “The infield-fly rule always seems to give people pause. What’s going on with the runners? Is it live? Is it dead? Do you have to tag him? We had a lot of chaos taking place. Heads up baseball play. ‘Eddy’ tagged Ortega. They had deemed the play dead, at that point it’s dead.
“The argument was that he had already vacated the base, he was tagged, which could have been out three. But they had killed the play, effectively eliminating the ability to tag him.”
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