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Cubs have questions for MLB after controversial call down right field line

3 years agoTony Andracki

Yan Gomes sent a fly ball down the right field line that snuck under the glove of Mookie Betts and caromed away from the Dodgers outfielder.

As the Wrigley Field crowd cheered, Gomes motored into second but the Dodgers didn’t pursue the ball with any sort of urgency.

That’s because the call on the field was ruled a foul ball.

Gomes was bewildered. The Cubs almost immediately challenged and after a couple of minutes, the official announcement was in: Call Stands.

Here’s the play in question during the 4th inning of Game 2 Saturday night at Wrigley Field:

It was a big moment in the game. The Cubs were trailing 4-1 at the time and desperately searching for any sort of spark to get the offense going.

Gomes came up to the plate with 1 out in the inning and would have had at least a double on the play — and possibly more given the way it bounced by Betts.

Instead, Gomes had to go back to the batter’s box and eventually flew out to Betts for the 2nd out of the inning. The Cubs wound up losing 6-2.

The way Wrigley Field is set up, there is not much space down either foul line. The chalk/paint runs almost right up to the padded wall without much — or any — room for a ball to hit the ground without striking the foul line.

The replay appears to indicate the ball landed on the ground first before hitting the wall — which is what the Cubs thought.

After the game ended, they still didn’t have any clear answers on the controversial ruling.

“I trust in our replay guys,” David Ross said. “They’re pretty thorough. From the angle that I saw on the board like everybody else, it looked like it hit the line and kicked.

“I’ll definitely try to reach out to Major League Baseball and see what happened there. It looked pretty clear to me. I haven’t watched the replay yet. … I don’t know how much space down there there is. From what I saw, I just got some questions, for sure.”

Gomes had a good look at it as he ran down the first base line and was unsure why it was called a foul ball.

“That’s not really up to me,” Gomes said. “The fact that you’re asking, that should answer it all. I don’t know, man. That’s a pretty clear play. It goes to replay. Fans are going nuts. I don’t know.”

Gomes said he was never given an explanation by the umpiring crew about why the call stood even after replay.

“I don’t ask for an explanation because nothing can change,” Gomes said. “The story kind of tells itself.”

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