The Padres might be stewing about this one all offseason.
With their season hanging in the balance in a winner-take-all wild-card Game 3 against the Cubs on Thursday, Xander Bogaerts came up in the ninth inning after Jackson Merrill’s leadoff homer and got the count full.
He took what appeared to be a pitch well below the zone from Chicago reliever Brad Keller, which would have meant a walk.
Except home plate umpire D.J. Reyburn felt otherwise, calling the pitch a strike — meaning Bogaerts was not only not on first base, but he was the first out of the final frame.
Bogaerts looked back at Reyburn and then squatted down in pure disbelief before Padres manager Mike Shildt came out of the first base dugout for a word, but to no avail.
Making matters sting more for San Diego is that the next two batters reached base on plunkings.
But they failed to get any runs in after a groundout and a flyout ended their season.
If Rayburn’s call happened in 2026, the Padres would have likely been able to challenge the call with MLB’s incoming automated ball-strike system (ABS) that would allow a pitcher, catcher or batter to flag a home plate umpire’s decision and put it to a quick video review.
With no ABS, though, the Padres were out of luck, and the Cubs are advancing in the playoffs for the first time since 2017.
The Cubs will face the NL Central rival Brewers in the best-of-five NLDS on Saturday.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
