We've seen our fair share of blown calls this season, but something a little different happened in Thursday night's Padres-Rockies game: The umpire crew managed to mangle two calls on the same play.
It was the 12th inning of a 5-5 game, a tense situation for sure. There was one out with the bases loaded for the Padres and Yasmani Grandal coming up to bat. What happened next will take some explaining.
Grandal chopped the ball down the third-base line. It looked like it might be foul, but was ruled fair. No harm there. Nolan Arenado fielded the ball, ran to tag third for a force out and threw to first in hopes of an inning-ending double play. Arenado got the out call at third, but Grandal was ruled safe at first. That allowed Chase Headley to score.
The call at first base was most obviously botched. Grandal was out by a step and the umpire Ed Hickox was looking right at it. You might be thinking this cost the Rockies the game, because they ended up losing 6-5. But not so fast. Further examination of the play — check the GIF — will show you that Arenado threw the ball before ever touching third base but umpire Cory Blaser didn't notice.
In the grand scheme of things, the two blunders cancel each other out. Had just the first base call been botched, the Rockies would have a legitimate reason to be upset. Headley's run shouldn't have counted.
Alas, it's a case where two wrongs actually did make a right. Though, we don't recommend umpires depend on that to save their butts in the future.
Baseball season's in full swing. Don't miss a thing.
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