{"id":916115,"date":"2026-10-04T18:44:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T18:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/916115\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T18:44:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T18:44:21","slug":"cable-robs-padres-of-potential-home-run-in-bizarre-playoff-loss-to-brewers-mlb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/916115\/","title":{"rendered":"Cable robs Padres of potential home run in bizarre playoff loss to Brewers | MLB"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brewers manager Pat Murphy credited the team\u2019s legendary late broadcaster Bob Uecker for an unlikely boost<\/a> in the ninth inning to help preserve a 3-2 victory over visiting San Diego in \u2060the opener of their playoff series on Saturday.<\/p>\n

With one out in the ninth and the Brewers clinging to a one-run lead, San Diego had a runner on first when Ty France hit a drive to left field \u2060off closer Trevor Megill. But the ball struck a roof cable, stayed in play and was caught by Jackson Chourio for the second out. Megill then retired Jackson Merrill on a fly ball to right field to \u2060give Milwaukee the victory.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the only thing that you could probably figure on the ball that everybody\u2019s going to be talking about is that [Uecker] decided to put his hand on it and swat it down so Chourio \u2060could catch it,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cSo thanks, Ueck.\u201d<\/p>\n

Uecker, who was the radio voice of the Brewers for more than 50 \u200byears, died last year at the age of 90.<\/p>\n

The ground rules \u200cfor Milwaukee\u2019s American Family Field say that a \u200cbatted ball that strikes the roof, roof truss, roof cable or any cabling over fair territory is in play. If caught by a fielder, \u200cthe batter is out. If the ball strikes any of those same structures over foul territory, it\u2019s a dead ball. A third rule says if the ball strikes those structures over fair territory and lands foul, it\u2019s a foul ball.<\/p>\n

The Padres challenged whether the ball was fair or foul, but the on-field call that it was an out was upheld.<\/p>\n

Padres manager Craig Stammen thought the ball would have been a home run if it had not hit the cable, while Murphy believes it would have gone foul.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe joked about it at the umpire meeting today \u200cabout what would happen if the ball hit the roof,\u201d Stammen said after the game. \u201cAnd it was unlikely, but it happened. The rule is if they deemed the ball to be fair and it comes down you can catch it. If it \u200bhits off the roof foul, then it\u2019s a foul ball. So they ruled that it hit the roof fair and the outfielder caught it.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, a bad break for us. Looked like it was a possible home run. Just didn\u2019t go our way. Second time that\u2019s happened this year to the Padres.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murphy said from his vantage point, the ball wouldn\u2019t have stayed fair for a homer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was going to be a foul ball for sure,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cI\u2019m \u2060standing right on that line, a hitter that talented.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chourio, who hit a game-tying, two-run homer earlier in \u200bthe game, said he was just trying to make \u200bsure he made the play.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t all that \u200bsure of what the rule was, and I wasn\u2019t really all that sure that it actually did hit anything,\u201d \u200bChourio said. \u201cI \u200cthought I had a chance \u200bon that ball kind of \u200bthe whole time off the bat. Then the only thing I kind of realized, it changed direction a little bit, but I thought I had a bead on it for the majority of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Stammen said, it also wasn\u2019t the first time this season the Padres lost a potential home run to a stadium\u2019s unique ground rules.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

In August, Xander Bogaerts\u2019s drive struck the catwalk at Tampa Bay\u2019s Tropicana Field and was caught by Rays third baseman Junior Caminero. Bogaerts\u2019s drive had been projected by Statcast to go 386ft.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would think with all the technology and data and everything we have now, we\u2019d be able to make a clear call on that,\u201d France said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if that\u2019s ever been done before, but yeah, there should be something put in place right there. That shouldn\u2019t be an out.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Saturday\u2019s other division series openers, the Rays shut out the Yankees for a 1-0 win, the Dodgers overcame the Braves 5-3 and the White Sox beat the Guardians 3-0.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brewers manager Pat Murphy credited the team\u2019s legendary late broadcaster Bob Uecker for an unlikely boost in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":916116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-916115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=916115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/916116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}