Ian Desmond thought he had an inside-the-park homer as he raced around the bases in the fifth inning against the Braves on Friday. Justin Upton thought it was a double. After replay overturned the initial call, it was Upton who got his way.
Here’s the play:
[mlbvideo id=”31812917″ width=”400″ height=”224″ /]
Desmond’s grounder down the third base line and to the wall in left field stuck under the padding at Nationals Park, causing Upton to do the smart thing and throw up his hands for the double. The umpiring crew, though, never gave him the deadball sign, and third base ump Marvin Hudson showed no sign of coming out to get a better look at the ball. With no call forthcoming, Upton finally picked up the ball and threw it back to the infield, though at that point, it was too late to stop Desmond from making his way home.
The Braves challenged the call at that point, arguing that the ball was lodged under the padding in left. Whether that’s actually a reviewable call or not is unclear, but the umps did go approve the replay and then overturned their original call, putting Desmond back at second base.
The overturn certainly seemed like the right call. While the ball wasn’t truly “stuck,” as Upton showed by how easy he grabbed it, it was lodged in between the ground and the padding, which unfortunately comes to a stop about a ball’s width from the ground. Upton did the smart thing, at least until he went and eventually grabbed it and left no proof of the ball’s placement for Hudson to examine.
