Brewers escape as Padres' potential go-ahead HR hits roof, falls for out — SkimNews
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- Ty France hit a 105.3 mph fastball with a 49-degree launch angle in the ninth inning that struck a roof cable at American Family Field and was caught by Jackson Chourio for an out, denying the Padres a go-ahead run.
- The Padres challenged whether the ball struck fair or foul territory on the roof, but the call was confirmed fair after replay review per the stadium's ground rules.
- William Contreras delivered a go-ahead solo home run in the seventh inning as the Brewers rallied from a 2-0 deficit, after Jackson Chourio had tied the game with a two-run blast in the third.
- France said the ball was "going [out]" and "staying fair," arguing that with tracking data already available, "we'd be able to make a clear call on that," while Manny Machado added, "I think we should reach out to the technology to have a better call there."
- Brewers third-base coach Matt Erickson said umpire Nic Lentz went over the rarely-used roof-cable ground rule during the pre-game meeting, telling the group, "I haven't seen it in six years, but it's definitely happening tonight" — and it did.
- Padres manager Craig Stammen joked, "Plug AI into it and figure out how far it would go," while Brewers manager Pat Murphy insisted the ball "was going to be a foul ball for sure."
- The loss snapped the Padres' perfect postseason run after they had swept the Cubs in the wild-card round; Game 2 is Sunday with Michael King facing Brewers rookie Logan Henderson.
Why it matters: The Brewers seized a 1-0 series lead heading into Sunday's Game 2, while the Padres absorbed their first postseason loss after a Cubs sweep — and both managers publicly disagreed on whether France's ball was curving foul or gone. France and Machado explicitly called for better technology to settle future roof-cable calls, putting pressure on MLB to revisit how it handles the rare but consequential American Family Field ground rule.
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