The Atlanta Braves were already trailing the Philadelphia Phillies 2-0 going into the eighth inning of Game 1 of the NLDS series that got underway on Saturday night at Truist Park. Then they got into a tricky situation.
A.J. Minter allowed two runners to get on while recording just one out before exiting, then Pierce Johnson loaded the bases with a walk to Bryson Stott after getting a strikeout.
That's when controversy took hold as the umpires appeared to gift the Phillies a run.
Braves get hosed with awful catcher's interference call vs. Phillies
During the right-on-right matchup with Johnson and JT Realmuto, the Phillies catcher swung and missed and looked for a catcher's interference call. He got it.
However, when the replay was shown, there didn't appear to be any contact between Realmuto's bat and Braves catcher Sean Murphy's glove.
Even after review, though, the umps ruled that the call stood -- seemingly saying there wasn't enough evidence to overturn it. That gave the Phillies a 3-0 lead and Braves fans at the ballpark were absolutely irate.
Unfortunately, their anger didn't manifest in a healthy way. The fans in attendance began throwing beer cans and bottles onto the field at Truist Park after the review of the call said that the catcher's interference stood.
One thing that was noted on the TBS broadcast, though, was Murphy reacted as if he had interfered, jumping back and seemingly being upset with himself. Having said that, the review still doesn't clearly show any contact between bat and glove, so Braves fans do have a right to be upset.
If there's any silver lining, once the umps and security got control of the crowd and cleaned up the debri on the field, Johnson was able to get out of the inning without allowing another run in the game, giving Atlanta two more trips to the plate to try and erase the three-run deficit.
Should they go on to lose Game 1, however, that catcher's interference call will loom large and shrouded in controversy.
