Adams, Cards make missed call a moot point
ST. LOUIS -- Trailing the Brewers by one run in the second inning of Wednesday's 5-1 victory, the Cardinals appeared to have the momentum shifting in their favor. But that momentum was quickly halted when Matt Adams' knock into the right-field corner was called foul by first-base umpire Chris Guccione.
Replays showed the ball hit off the yellow line, and the call, which was disputed on the field by manager Mike Matheny, erased a potential first-and-third, no-outs situation for St. Louis.
"Tough call. When I got out there, he admitted that it was close," Matheny said. "You know, these guys do a good job. We had information back to our dugout pretty quick that that ball was on the line. I haven't seen it myself, but it sounded like it was pretty clear. They tried to get together and see if they saw anything different than what he saw, it just didn't happen."
Crew chief Tom Hallion and his officiating crew gathered to discuss the call and to see if any other umpire had a clearer view of the ball, but couldn't arrive at a conclusive consensus.
"When we get together and we huddle, we're looking for 110 percent assurance, that if we're going to flip it, that we can tell that it was the wrong call," Hallion said. "With that type of play, we just were not able to do that.
"… Obviously, we got the call wrong. We also didn't want to flip it and come back here and watch it on replay and see that we were wrong doing that. It's just one of those calls."
Brewers starter Marco Estrada tossed a no-hitter for 5 2/3 innings, although Adams' hit would have broken it up much earlier. Were it not for a late-inning comeback by the Cardinals, the foul call could have had a significant impact on the game's outcome.
"That's the game of of baseball. People make mistakes," said Adams, who ended up hitting a two-run homer in the eighth. "It was a big turn of events. It would have been first-and-third, nobody out in a close ballgame where the pitchers were throwing the ball good. But, we just kept battling all game."