The Chicago Cubs were one out away from leaving Baltimore with a sweep, and instead they walked out with a loss, a furious manager, and one replay decision that will stick in the craw for a while.
The game turned in the eighth after Chicago led 2-1. Tyler Ferguson came in and struck out Tyler Ward right away, but the inning quickly unraveled when he hit both Gunnar Henderson and Pete Alonso on back-to-back at-bats.
Craig Counsell went to Ryan Rollison, who had been nails for most of the season, but Jeremiah Jackson greeted him with a low four-seamer that found the gap between right and center for a bases-clearing double. Just like that, Baltimore had a 3-2 lead.
Rollison later walked a batter before getting the final two outs, and the Cubs still had one more opening in the ninth. Nico Hoerner reached when Gunnar Henderson committed a fielding error, putting the tying run aboard with nobody out. Then came the play that stopped Chicago cold.
Hoerner broke for second as Orioles catcher Samuel Basallo fired the ball to Henderson. Hoerner appeared to beat the throw, even with Basallo’s toss sailing a little high, but he was ruled out after Henderson held the tag as Hoerner slid off the bag.
Chicago challenged, arguing that Henderson’s foot was blocking the base and forced Hoerner out of position. The call stood, the Cubs lost their first out of the inning, and the bases were cleared.
That decision mattered even more when Ian Happ singled in the next at-bat. Hoerner, had he stayed on, might have scored. Instead, the inning was already damaged beyond repair.
Counsell was clearly steamed afterward, and he didn’t hide it.
“It’s not the push. There is a clear blocking the bag there.
It’s very clear," Counsell told Marquee after the game. "The reason why Nico came off the bag is because the player was blocking the bag, and he has to adjust his slide.
So, then they go to review. They’re not even looking at the blocking of the bag when that’s what caused the player to come off.
It’s kind of illogical that you don’t look at blocking the bag when it’s what caused the player to come off the bag.
So, they can’t look at it. He did come off the bag and was tagged, but he came off the bag because Henderson had his foot right in the sliding lane, which is illegal.
So New York is staring at it [but] because Ramon didn’t call it on the field, they don’t call it. That makes no sense.”
The Cubs still have to own the fact that the bullpen let the game slip away late. But that ninth-inning ruling took what should have been a live finish and turned it into another frustrating ending, with the entire ballpark able to see the same thing the Cubs were arguing: Henderson was in the lane, and Hoerner was forced to adjust.
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