The explanations were not sufficient. Credit the umpires for answering some tough questions about the finish of Thursday night’s Game 5 of the National League Division Series, but in the end, nothing changed in the public’s eye. It was a ridiculous call, and an inexcusable way to end a season.
If there was any way to heighten the drama of this Giants-Dodgers classic, it was the sight of Max Scherzer — a starting pitcher on his way to the Hall of Fame — coming out of the L.A. bullpen to finish off their 2-1 victory. Wilmer Flores, a standout for the Giants all season, was down to his last strike with a runner on first base.
Scherzer delivered, Flores checked his swing, home-plate umpire Doug Eddings asked for some help — it’s always the first-base umpire with a right-handed batter at the plate— and Gabe Morales gave the “out” sign. Game over.
Please. You have got to be kidding.
Even the Dodgers, in their hearts, knew this was wrong. Not that they cared, dancing wildly about the middle of the field at Oracle Park, having finally caught the Giants after the most memorable division race in history. But the injustice was clear to all. A somber mood enshrouded the TBS postgame show as all four men — Pedro Martinez, Jimmy Rollins, Doug Glanville and host Ernie Johnson — made it the story of the game.
“Check swings are one of the hardest calls we have,” Morales told pool reporter John Shea of The Chronicle after the game. “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.”
Crew chief Ted Barrett said the umpires “talk about it a lot in our meetings because it is one of most difficult calls. We try to get all on the same page as a staff that we’re all trying to call the same thing. But by the rule book, it just says, did he offer at the pitch? So there’s some ambiguity there, but we do our best to try to be consistent so the players know what’s a swing and what’s not.”
In truth, the check-swing invites ambiguity. There are those who feel every instance is a swing. I lean more toward Scott Ostler’s point of view, writing that because it’s a checked swing, it’s not a swing, so don’t call it one.
What can be done about this? There’s a big difference between a player clearly holding back his swing, as Flores did, and an egregious second thought — wrists turned over, the bat way out over the hitter’s body — that should reward the pitcher. Most of all, in the manner of NBA referees giving players the benefit of the doubt with playoff games on the line, umpires can’t make such a vitally important call unless there’s no doubt about a checked swing gone wrong. For Morales to make that call, right then, he left behind a stench that, for Giants fans and the game of baseball, won’t ever go away.
Be assured, as well, that the home-plate umpiring was highly questionable, if not downright absurd, throughout this series. There was no favoritism; players from each side repeatedly took strikes that clearly were outside the zone. Not that MLB seems to care. Widely ridiculed umpire Angel Hernandez was assigned to this series, and worked the plate in Game 2, so, hell, anything goes.
Near the end of the umpires’ interview Thursday night, Barrett was asked if Morales made the right call. He answered, “Yeah, no, we, yeah, yeah, he doesn’t want to say.”
Wow. Nothing like getting straight to the heart of things. In fairness, from what we can gather, that comment looks worse than it sounded — not to be confused with the call itself. That looks worse every time you watch it.
The Dodgers earned it
Don’t confuse that last-second madness with the reality of this series: The Giants were shut down. They hit .182 over the five games, with Evan Longoria going 2-for-17, Mike Yastrzemski 0-for-13, LaMonte Wade Jr. 1-for-10, Darin Ruf 1-for-11 and Wilmer Flores 1-for-12. Their RBI co-leaders for the series had two apiece. They didn’t have their own Mookie Betts, who hit .450 for for the Dodgers, played a sterling right field and was unstoppable in Game 5, going 4-for-4 with a stolen base. … The Dodgers did it all without their most feared hitter, Max Muncy, and the much-admired Clayton Kershaw. This team had only one villain, the scorned and banished Trevor Bauer, among some pretty likable characters. … As for the Giants’ sidelined first baseman, Brandon Belt, it’s a terrible shame he couldn’t play. He was on his way to a career-best season, especially in terms of leadership, and now he has to wonder — like several Giants veterans — about his future with the team.
Although he’d never say so in public, Thursday night marked a personal triumph for Giants broadcaster Duane Kuiper, who underwent chemotherapy all season (by all indications, it was successful) and was unable to work at times. He was there at the finish, working alongside Jon Miller, Dave Flemming and Mike Krukow on the KNBR radio broadcast. “Kuip was great,” Krukow said. “We were all way into it. Those three guys were trading off innings with the play-by-play, and it’s so difficult to come in after a long break and get right into the flow of the game. Not with our crew. They just nail it every time. It really meant the world to Kuip. Every time he gets to come out to the ballpark, he’s not taking it lightly. And he’s ready to go a full slate next year.” … Krukow said when he got back to his San Francisco apartment, joined by some friends and family, “We drank whiskey until 2 in the morning, just talking about how good this team was. There were no regrets. None. We tried hard to be pissed about it, but in the end, we were just in awe of what they did.”
Bruce Jenkins is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @Bruce_Jenkins1
