Ty France nearly delivered the kind of swing that can flip a playoff game in one crack of the bat. Instead, the Brewers’ roof at American Family Field and a little-known ground rule turned a would-be Padres surge into an out.
San Diego was down 3-2 to Milwaukee in the ninth inning of Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Saturday when France turned on a pitch from Trevor Megill and sent it screaming into the air at 105 mph off the bat. For a moment, it looked like the Padres might be about to take the lead.
But the ball climbed so steeply that it struck a metal rail on the domed stadium’s roof in left field and bounced back into play. Jackson Chourio was in the right place at the right time, tracking the carom and making the catch for the out.
The play was challenged by Padres manager Craig Stammen, but the call stood. Under the ground rule, if the ball had hit the roof in foul territory, it would have been dead immediately. Instead, the umpires ruled it fair.
Replays suggested the ball was still rising when it made contact with the rail, but the numbers also hinted at how unusual the contact was. The ball had a 49-degree launch angle, and Statcast indicated it would have been a home run in only one of the 30 major league parks: Daikin Park in Houston, which has the shortest left-field wall in the majors.
In other words, even if the roof hadn’t intervened, the ball still sat in a strange bucket of outcomes. Similar balls are usually caught by left fielders anyway, and some observers noted it could have ended up as a foul ball depending on the spin.
Afterward, Stammen said the oddity had even come up before first pitch.
“We joked about it at the umpire meeting today, about what would happen if the ball hit the roof,” Stammen said after the game. “Unlikely, but it happened.
They ruled that it hit the roof fair, and the outfielder caught it. So, unfortunately, it’s a bad break for us.
Looked like it was a possible home run; just didn’t go our way.”
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