Urías makes diving catch in G4 -- or does he?
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ATLANTA -- It looked like a heck of a highlight-reel catch.
Brewers catcher Omar Narváez ripped off his mask and charged toward the on-deck circle near the visitors’ dugout as he pursued Adam Duvall's popup in foul territory in the fourth inning of Game 4 of the National League Division Series on Tuesday at Truist Park. Narváez extended his glove at the last second and appeared to catch the ball, but as he pulled his left arm back, the ball popped out. Milwaukee third baseman Luis Urías, however, was in the perfect spot to make a diving catch before the ball hit the ground.
It resembled the famous catch that Pete Rose made in the ninth inning of Game 6 of the 1980 World Series at Veterans Stadium.
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But was Urías' grab really a catch?
The Braves took a quick look at replay, and they thought the ball hit the warning track first, so they wanted a replay review. One problem: while a fly ball or line drive caught by a fielder in the outfield is reviewable, a fly ball or line drive fielded by a player in the infield is not eligible for a review, unless it is “proximate” to a stadium boundary (backstop, protective netting or other out-of-play areas).
The umpires checked with replay officials in New York to make sure they were correct in their understanding of the rule and to make sure the ball did not contact the netting behind home plate.
They were correct.
So while the ball appeared to hit the dirt, Duvall was ruled out. Fans booed loudly as Duvall returned to the dugout.
But maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing.
“I think the coolest thing was -- I get it that that call was unreviewable, but the crowd, like, really got into it and it fired us all up,” Braves catcher Travis d’Arnaud said. “And we were able to tie it back up that inning.”
Indeed, the Braves recovered and scored two runs on Eddie Rosario's pinch-hit two-run single to tie the game at 2.
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Though Milwaukee reclaimed the lead one inning later, Freddie Freeman ultimately hit a decisive go-ahead homer in the eighth inning for a 5-4 victory as Atlanta won the series, 3-1.
“There's nothing in this game that's perfect, no matter what we do,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “Any rule, anything that we do in this game, it's not a perfect game. That's the beauty of it. And you can try -- I don't know that there's any set of rules, any set of things that we do that there's going to be some exceptions to those rules. It's just the game we play. That's why we love it and keep coming back.”