It was only one pitch out of 402 in the game, which needed 11 innings and a crazy finish to resolve in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ favor.
But Philadelphia Phillies left-hander Cristopher Sanchez’s 2-and-2 pitch to Dodgers hitter Alex Call in the seventh inning looked like it should have been a strike. Mark Wegner, the home plate umpire, ruled it a ball. Call walked on the very next pitch.
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Justin Dean pinch-ran for Call, and scored when Mookie Betts drew a bases-loaded walk later in the inning. That was the Dodgers’ first run in an eventual 2-1 victory to clinch the best-of-five National League Division Series.
The Dodgers are moving on to the NL Championship Series. The Phillies are staying home.
The most remarkable part about the missed call? Wegner apologized for Sanchez for it.
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“Cristopher Sánchez said the umpire apologized to him for missing the 2-2 pitch to Alex Call in the seventh,” Philadelphia Inquirer beat writer Lochlahn March wrote on Twitter/X. “What should have been a strikeout became a walk, and that runner went on to score the tying run.”
The game remained tied 1-1 into the 11th inning, when the Dodgers again loaded the bases against the Phillies. Andy Pages hit a slow tapper back to the mound, but pitcher Orion Kerkering couldn’t field it cleanly. Rather than throw Pages out at first base — he had time — Kerkering instead threw the ball home and missed catcher J.T. Realmuto as Hyeseong Kim scored the game-winning run.
The Dodgers’ seventh-inning run would have meant little if the Phillies had taken advantage of their own baserunner in the 11th inning, or if the Dodgers had scored more than two runs in the game.
As it was, Wegner’s missed call loomed large.
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Sanchez was near-perfect the rest of the game. He threw 6.1 innings and allowed five hits, one walk, and only the one run.
The Phillies were trying to thwart the Dodgers from defending their National League pennant. After going 96-66 and winning the National League East, Philadelphia clinched a first-round bye in the postseason.
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But after losing both games at Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies’ backs were against the wall heading to Los Angeles for Game 3. They staved off elimination by beating the Dodgers 8-2 Wednesday.
Now, thanks to a critical error on the mound in the 11th inning — and behind the plate in the seventh — their season is over.
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