Brewers benefit from fluke play, take Game 1 of NLDS in nail-biter

Would it have been gone?

That's the question most fans of the San Diego Padres will be asking themselves for the foreseeable future, after a fluke play broke the Milwaukee Brewers' way in Game 1 of the National League Division Series.

To briefly set the stage, the Brewers and Padres were locked into a nail-biting battle of bullpens on Saturday night, that resulted in Pat Murphy's squad holding a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the ninth inning. On the bump was Brewers' All-Star closer Trevor Megill, who was asked to earn four outs last night, and opposing him at the plate with one out in the final frame was Padres' slugger Ty France.

Megill missed his spot with a 1-0 fastball, leaving it belt-high and just barely on the inner half of the plate, and the Padres' first baseman turned on it, sending a towering fly ball down the left field line. Before the fly ball could reach its apex, however, it made contact with one of the cables that support the closed retractable roof at American Family Field. The collision redirected the baseball, seemingly back into fair territory and into the glove of Jackson Chourio, which the crowd of nearly 43,000 at American Family Field believed to be the second out of the inning.

However, confusion set in as the umpires convened to discuss the play. Most didn't realize the ball had struck the roof at American Family Field, and others were unsure of what the outcome of the play would have been if it had. To add context to the situation, the ground rules at American Family Field state that if a ball strikes the roof in fair territory, it's treated as a live ball, and therefore if it lands in the glove of a fielder, it's an out. However, if a ball strikes the roof in foul territory, it's a dead ball, regardless of where it lands.

Padres manager Craig Stammen challenged the play, noting that he was specifically challenging whether the ball struck the roof in fair or foul territory. The challenge was unsuccessful, the play stood as the second out of the ninth inning, Megill quickly earned the third out, and the Brewers took a 1-0 lead in the NLDS. Thus began the conversation regarding just how fortunate the Brewers were that France's fly ball struck the retractable roof.

Brewers benefit from Ty France's ninth-inning fly ball hitting the roof of American Family Field, take 1-0 series lead in NLDS

Both managers were asked about the play after the game. Stammen, when asked if he thought the ball was gone, said, "Yeah, I think so...You look at the exit velocity, look at the launch angle, plug AI into it, and figure out how far it would go." Meanwhile, Brewers manager Pat Murphy was adamant that the ball would have tailed foul, starting his press conference by saying, "It was going to be a foul ball. It was going to be a foul ball for sure. I'm standing right on that line."

So if Stammen is to be believed, the roof preserved the Brewers' lead, but if Murphy is to be believed, then the roof simply ended France's at-bat earlier than it otherwise would have. Given the fact that France is a talented hitter, who can change the game with one swing of the bat and was right on Megill's fastball, it's undoubtedly still a lucky play for the Brewers, but was it game-changing? That may never be known.

Statcast's home run tracker indicates that France's fly ball would not have been a home run, but Padres fans are certain that metric is flawed. However, at a 49-degree launch angle, it feels almost impossible that the ball would have carried far enough to be a home run. In regard to the rest of the series, the point is moot, as the Brewers officially carry a 1-0 series lead into tomorrow's matinee after a wild Saturday night thriller.

As for who Murphy believes is responsible for the play, that would be the late great Bob Uecker. Said Murphy after the game with a smile, "Ueck decided to put his hand on it and swat it down so Chourio could catch it. So thanks, Ueck."

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