Rockies/Padres tonight at 7:30...

[Chollie Eckman]

Another blown call by an ump! Maclenand and his friggin deliberate calls.....acts like hes not making a call cause the runner never touched the plate.....then makes a late safe call......WTF....dude never touched the plate.......should be 2 outs and the game still tied.

Wasn't McClellan the pine tar ump?

[RVAbird]

TIVO's are both a wonder and a curse. Here's what it looked like to me:

• Initial no-call, while the ump looked to see if the C held the ball
• Then, he watches the loose ball roll around some.
• Then, he watches the C scramble after it some.
• Then, he watches the C realize the nature of the situation and move to tag him.
• Throughout all this, the ump appears to be truly waiting to see what's gonna happen.
• Then, just when the C is reaching to tag him, but before he does, the ump waves "safe".

I don't know how to reconcile what I saw with the idea that a loose ball resolved it. But, it is what it is.

I'm not upset, I'm mainly just really puzzled. It doesn't make sense to me. One way or another, this is not what umps should do.

All I saw was McClelland holding off on the call until he could see whether Barrett held onto the ball, seeing the ball trickle away, and making a reluctant safe sign...just the same way he makes his delayed, reluctant strike calls. He may or may not have gotten the call right, but I don't think there was anything odd (for McClelland) about how he called it.

[RShack]

All I saw was McClelland holding off on the call until he could see whether Barrett held onto the ball, seeing the ball trickle away, and making a reluctant safe sign...just the same way he makes his delayed, reluctant strike calls. He may or may not have gotten the call right, but I don't think there was anything odd (for McClelland) about how he called it.

Oh, well... there is that... if this is what it is, the man must have some serious sludge clogging up the neural path from eyes-to-brain-to-arms... it's way slower than just not-being-quick...

[ELC]

Oh, well... there is that... if this is what it is, the man must have some serious sludge clogging up the neural path from eyes-to-brain-to-arms... it's way slower than just not-being-quick...

Did you not see the rest of the game? I've seen glaciers melt faster than his calls for balls and strikes.

[orioles119]

No he didn't

I stand corrected... sometimes it's hard to tell Ramon Ortiz and Jorge Julio apart in the boxscore.

[RShack]

Did you not see the rest of the game? I've seen glaciers melt faster than his calls for balls and strikes.

Oh, yeah, I saw it... and, believe me, I do see your point...

I guess I was just kinda assuming that a close play at the plate in the bottom of the 13th in a 1-game playoff that ends the season for an entire team would be a matter that the ump would pretend was of some interest to him. Silly me...

[Baltimoron]

Don't forget GM Dan O'Dowd who worked in the Orioles FO prior to following Hank Peters and John Hart to Cleveland.

I believe the Orioles were the first MLB team he worked for.

and Jamie "I'd rather not block that Gregg Olson curveball" Quirk is the bench coach.

Go Purps! Bestest baseball game for me ever.

[ELC]

The last time the Rockies were in the playoffs Pogs were cool.

[Fan4Life]

I'm happy with this outcome.. score one for the good guys....

[Fist Bump]

All I saw was McClelland holding off on the call until he could see whether Barrett held onto the ball, seeing the ball trickle away, and making a reluctant safe sign...just the same way he makes his delayed, reluctant strike calls. He may or may not have gotten the call right, but I don't think there was anything odd (for McClelland) about how he called it.

Question for the ump should be: Why would you wait until you saw if the catcher caught the ball or not when he never tagged the runner?

[rolliefingers]

Purps? PURPS?!

Nice going, Rockies. The Philly series should be a scorcher.

[NewMarketSean]

I surprised myself and watched more of this game than the Pats/Bengals game, which wasn't much of a game anyway. Pretty exciting game, but when it went into the 12th my "I don't care" mode kicked in and I went to bed. I wish I would have stayed up. What a finish! I am happy for the Rox though.

[mdman3219]

Could the play at the plate have been an obstruction call? The catcher didn't have the ball and then blocked off home. I’ve seen this theory being tossed around on some message boards and wanted to see what everyone on here thought.

[tennOsfan]

Question for the ump should be: Why would you wait until you saw if the catcher caught the ball or not when he never tagged the runner?

I saw this opinion posted on officiating.com, and I think this guy has a good idea what was going on in the ump's mind:

"I have to admit that I'm a bit skeptical. I think there's at least a chance that he didn't see it, knew he didn't have it, wanted the runner to touch to make it irrelevant, but once the catcher had the ball and the runner didn't move, made the expected, not unexpected call. Maybe he was replaying it in his head and waiting to be sure of his call. Seemed a bit late, though."

I agree that I think the ump was waiting for Holliday to go back and touch the plate, but since he wasn't moving and the catcher was coming in for the kill, he'd look really silly if he signaled safe any later.

Even the best umpires will mess up. He was in the technically correct position, but the catcher's foot wound up blocking his view. The replay from the third base view looks like Holliday didn't touch the plate, but you can't 100% tell. He certainly didn't sell the call well.

[tennOsfan]

Could the play at the plate have been an obstruction call? The catcher didn't have the ball and then blocked off home. I’ve seen this theory being tossed around on some message boards and wanted to see what everyone on here thought.

He was in the process of receiving the ball when he moved the foot to block the plate. No MLB umpire will call the runner safe because of that.