Saturday October 6th, 2012

Jake Dal Porto: It was the night of the “non-favorites” on Friday with the two “do or die” Wild Card games taking center stage. The Cardinals escaped a hostile environment at Turner Field (more on that later), while the Orioles beat the Rangers to begin a very long and painful offseason for the Rangers’ management group.

Here’s how each game went down:

St.Louis Cardinals (6) AT Atlanta Braves (3)- Cardinals will play Washington Sunday in game one of the NLDS

The storyline in this game wasn’t Chipper Jones’s career coming to an end, nor was it a specific play which defined the game. The storyline was a bad call by the umpires. More specifically, the added left field umpire.

The Braves were down 6-3 entering the bottom of the eighth inning. They had failed to capitalize on multiple opportunities to cut into the Cardinals lead. Shortstop Andrelton Simmons veered too far into the base path with runner on first and third and one out while trying to bunt. The ball ticked off Simmons’s helmet and kicked down the right field line. Originally, two runs would’ve scored on the play had the call not been reversed, but upon further review, Simmons did indeed interfere with the throw, and both runners were brought back to their respective bases while Simmons was ruled out. In that situation, a simple ground ball would’ve done the trick with his above average speed. Read the rest of this entry →