With a chance to even Game 6 of the World Series on Friday night, Addison Barger lined a ball into the left-centre gap and didn't stop running until he crossed home plate.
The only problem was that the ball he drove to the wall became lodged in the Rogers Centre padding, prompting Los Angeles Dodgers centre-fielder Justin Dean to toss his hands up and for the left-field umpire to call the play dead.
It caused confusion on both sides of the field, as pinch-runner Myles Straw scored right before Barger on a play that looked to be an inside-the-park home run.
The MLB ruling on dead balls is as follows:
"If a fair ball gets lodged in the outfield wall padding — or the ivy, in the case of Wrigley Field — it is a ground-rule double. On all ground-rule doubles, the ball is dead, the batter-runner goes to second and all additional runners are permitted to move up two bases from the one they occupied at the time of the pitch."
So, rather than a franchise-defining moment and what would have been a tie game, Barger was sent back to second.
It set up the bottom of the Blue Jays order with a chance to drive in the tying runs, but Ernie Clement popped up to first and Andrés Giménez flew out to Kiké Hernández in left before firing back in to second to double off Barger.
It left Toronto with a 3-1 loss and a Game 7 set for Saturday back at Rogers Centre (Sportsnet, 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT).
Post-game, Blue Jays manager John Schneider squashed any controversy about the lodged ball, calling the play something he had never seen unfold at Rogers Centre.
"Been here a long time. I haven't seen a ball get lodged ever," Schneider said. "Just caught a tough break there. He put a really good swing on that pitch and ultimately ended up second and third with nobody out with guys that make contact and just didn't get it done."
On the other side, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said that Dean should have played the ball before the eventual review.
"As the rule is current, you want to play that ball, actually, and you can go back and replay the lodged ball," he said. "But he still was aware of it being lodged, and then the outfield umpire kind of blew it dead as well, so it worked out great."
