Even the New York Mets called Thursday’s 3-2 victory over the Miami Marlins a lucky break.
With the bases loaded and one in the bottom of the ninth, after Jeff McNeil equalized the score with a home run leading in the half, a 1-2 step in the inside corner of the home plate to Michael Conforto stepped his elbow as he leaned over the plate to give them the Mets victory.
Referee Ron Kulpa initially started calling Conforto with strike three and then changed his call to say the pitch hit Conforto.
The referee’s crew granted the appeal, but Kulpa’s decision remained. According to the replay rules, a call on whether a pitch is in the attacking zone when it hits a batter and whether the batter tries to avoid being hit cannot be reviewed.
On the other hand, Rule 5.05 (b) (2) provides that a hitter is entitled to first base when struck by a pitch, unless:
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(A) The ball is in the hitting area when it touches the batter, or (B) The batter does not attempt to avoid being hit by the ball; (2) If the ball is in the area of the shot when it touches the batter, it shall be called a strike, regardless of whether or not the batter tries to avoid the ball. If the ball is out of range when it hits the batter, it will be called a ball if it does not try to avoid being hit.
After the match, Kulpa, in the report from the pool, admitted that he made a wrong call, saying: “The guy was hit by the ground in the attack area. I should have called him.”
“That’s not how I wanted to win the ball game,” Conforto said. “I wanted to go up there and drive the ball somewhere. From my point of view, it was a slider, I felt it turn towards me. I turned around. There may have been a small elbow lift out of habit, from reaction and he barely sank the edge of my elbow, I saw that [Kulpa] called me. I think that’s why you didn’t see a reaction from me right away. I didn’t know what was going to happen. I knew there would be controversy. Our first head coach called on me to get there and reach the base and get out of here. “
Marlins manager Don Mattingly said the referees told him that all they could see was whether the field hit Conforto. Whether or not Conforto turned into a field was a lawsuit “and would not have met in this regard.”
“I think the hardest part is it’s just a strike. It’s about that simple,” Mattingly said. “You’d think that with all the replays we do, you could say, ‘That ball is a hit.’ I wonder what happens when I put the automated strike zone and it breaks the plane and the guy does that. I wonder if it’s a strike or not. I guess it’s for later. “
McNeil, who turned 29 on Thursday, led the ninth inning of the team’s home game against Anthony Bass, closer to the Marlins, with a long home run in the upper deck in the right field, covered with a huge flip of bat.
How about the end? “It was pretty incredible,” McNeil said. “It just happened to Nick Conforto there. We took a break and we happened to win the game.”
Conforto said he had no idea what the rules of the game were until he saw her on the club’s TV screens after the game.
“I think it all came down to the call on the field,” he said. “I think the controversy was that he first called it a strike and then said it hit me.”
Mets manager Luis Rojas said he believes the referees made the right decision. “I saw the strike call and then I saw the pitch,” he said. “In the end, the referees have to make the right call. It’s an interesting call, for sure. The movement of the hand and the attempt to get out of the way caused the pitch. But we’ll take the call.”
The Mets were happy to send their fans home with the victory.
“I’m glad to have the fans back,” Conforto said. “I’m glad to have that atmosphere back. When Jeff hit that homer, the place just exploded. The scream of the crowd, we missed that.”
The wrong decision was acknowledged by at least one betting site. FanDuel said it issues refunds for money line bets on Marlins, as well as for refunds where the Marlins money line was the only lost leg.