Even the New York Mets called Thursday’s 3-2 win over the Miami Marlins a lucky one.
With the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the ninth, after Jeff McNeil tied the score with a homerun in the inning, a 1-2 pitch into the inside corner of home plate by Michael Conforto grazed his elbow pad leaning over the plate to give the Mets victory.
Home-plate umpire Ron Kulpa initially started calling Conforto with strike three, then changed his call halfway through the move to say the pitch hit Conforto.
The umpiring crew discussed the call, but Kulpa’s decision was upheld. Under the replay rules, a call or pitch is in the strike zone when it hits a batter and whether the batter tries to avoid being hit cannot be revised.
On the other hand, Rule 5.05 (b) (2) states that a batter is entitled to first base when hit by a pitch, unless:
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(A) the ball is in the strike area when it hits the batter, or (B) the batter makes no attempt to avoid being touched by the ball; (2) If the ball is in the strike area when it hits the batter, this will be called a strike regardless of whether the batter tries to avoid the ball. If the ball is outside the strike area when it hits the batter, it will be called a ball if he does not try to avoid being touched.
After the game, Kulpa acknowledged in the pool report that he made the wrong call, saying, “That guy got hit by the field in the strike zone. I should have called him.”
“Not the way I wanted to win the ball game,” said Conforto. “I wanted to go up there and drive the ball somewhere. From my point of view it was a slider, he felt it coming back to me. I turned around. Maybe there had been a little lift of my elbow, just out of habit, out of response, and it barely shaved the edge of my elbow pad, I could tell [Kulpa] called me up. I think that’s why you didn’t immediately see a response from me. I didn’t know what would happen. I knew there was going to be some controversy. Our first base coach yelled at me to go down and touch the base and let’s get out of here. “
Marlins manager Don Mattingly said the referees told him all they could judge was whether the pitch hit Conforto. Whether Conforto took to the field or not was a judgment “and they didn’t meet on that”.
‘I think the hardest part is that it’s just a hit. It’s that simple, ”Mattingly said. “You would think with all the reps we do, you could say, ‘That ball is a hit.’ “I wonder what happens if they put the auto strike zone and the plane breaks and the man does. I wonder if that’s an attack or not. I think that’s for later.”
McNeil, who turned 29 on Thursday, led off the ninth inning of the team’s home opener against Marlins closer Anthony Bass with a long homerun on the top deck in the right field, culminating in a massive bat-flip.
As for the ending? “That was pretty incredible,” said McNeil. “It happened to Nick Conforto there. We took a break and just happened to win the game.”
Conforto said he had no idea what the rules of the game were until he saw it on TV screens in the clubhouse after the game.
“I think it all has to do with the field call,” he said. “I think the controversy was that he first called it a strike and then he said it hit me.”
Mets manager Luis Rojas said he thought the referees were making the right decision. “I saw the strike-call and then saw the hit by pitch,” he said. “Ultimately, the referees have to make the right call. It is certainly an interesting call. The movement of the hand and trying to get out of the way caused the hit by pitch.
The Mets were happy to send their fans home with the win.
“Good to have the fans back,” said Conforto. “Good to have that atmosphere back. When Jeff hit that homer, the room just exploded. The roar of the crowd, we missed that.”
The failed verdict was acknowledged by at least one gambling site. FanDuel said it returned money for bets on the Marlins, as well as parlays in which the Marlins money line was the only losing leg.