I’m not going to call it a blown call, since it wasn’t at all obvious live. Nevertheless, Friday’s game at Wrigley ended on a wrong call that gave the Cubs a 4-3 win over the Astros in 12 innings.
The bases were loaded with one out in the bottom of the 12th at the time of the play. David Carpenter was on the mound for Houston, with Marlon Byrd hitting for the Cubs. Byrd delivered a swinging bunt down the third base line. It actually bounced right on the line before Astros third baseman Chris Johnson went to play the hop. Johnson, standing in foul territory, had the ball go off his glove, at which point the ball kicked up some chalk again.
Watching it live, it did look like a fair ball, which was the ruling from home-plate umpire Jeff Nelson. However, on slow-motion replay, the ball clearly hit the ground in foul territory while also hitting Johnson’s glove. It then kicked back into fair territory.
Byrd was awarded the hit, which scored Starlin Castro from third.
Since it was a contest involving a couple of also-rans, there won’t be a whole lot of controversy about this one. However, the game shouldn’t have ended when it did and the Astros may not have deserved their 99th loss today.