{"id":228738,"date":"2026-10-26T01:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T01:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/inside-the-controversial-call-that-ended-game-2-of-the-world-series-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T01:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T01:07:08","slug":"inside-the-controversial-call-that-ended-game-2-of-the-world-series-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/inside-the-controversial-call-that-ended-game-2-of-the-world-series-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the controversial call that ended Game 2 of the World Series – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Milwaukee Brewers are two wins away from the first World Series title in franchise history, and they got a little help from an incredibly close call Saturday night.
With the Brewers leading 5-4 in the top of the ninth, the Rays had a runner on third with two outs and designated hitter Yandy D\u00edaz at the plate. On a 3-2 pitch that would have been ball four, D\u00edaz tried to check his swing on a curveball from Aaron Ashby.
Home plate umpire Jim Wolf initially ruled that D\u00edaz hadn\u2019t swung, which would have sent him to first base. But Milwaukee catcher William Contreras appealed to the first base umpire, who ruled that D\u00edaz had gone around. The strikeout ended the game.
Here\u2019s how the swing looked in real time:
And here\u2019s how it looked on replay:
\u201cIn the moment, yeah, I disagreed. But the umpire said it was a swing and it is what it is,\u201d D\u00edaz said after the game.
\u201cI didn\u2019t go look at it, but from my vantage point, it did look like that he swung,\u201d Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said.
The postgame crew on the Fox broadcast seemed split over the swing as well.
It\u2019s a great question, and one that MLB\u2019s rulebook doesn\u2019t answer.
According to MLB.com<\/a>, \u201cthere is no definition for \u2018check swing\u2019 in the official baseball rules. The closest thing comes in the definition of terms where the first example of a strike is a pitch that \u2018is struck at by the batter.\u2019\u201d
That leaves it to the umpires\u2019 discretion when a pitch is considered to be \u201cstruck at.\u201d
Colloquially, a batter has to break an imaginary plane for a checked swing to be considered a full one. What exactly is that plane? Again, there\u2019s no official rule. As with obscenity in Jacobellis v. Ohio, umpires typically know it when they see it.
Much to the delight of fans, MLB introduced the automated ball-strike (ABS) system this season, allowing players to challenge, as the name suggests, balls and strikes. ABS came on top of the expanded replay review rules instituted in 2014, which granted managers at least one challenge per game on calls such as force plays, tag plays and even fan interference.
Unfortunately for Tampa Bay, checked swings aren\u2019t on the list of reviewable plays, so the Rays couldn\u2019t ask for a review of the play in Game 2.
\u201cWe got ABS for the first time this year, getting the balls and strikes right. We need to get a system that can get [checked swings] right,\u201d Fox play-by-play announcer Joe Davis said during a replay of D\u00edaz\u2019s swing.
Given all the technology MLB has at its disposal, it\u2019s hard to believe the league and players union will let a situation like Game 2\u2019s happen again, particularly when the stakes are as high as the World Series.
In 2024, MLB tested checked-swing challenges in the Arizona Fall League, using the same Hawk-Eye technology used for the ABS system. In those challenges, teams were able to review if a checked swing \u201ccrossed a 45-degree threshold from home plate,\u201d according to MLB.com.
The checked-swing challenge has since made it to the minors, introduced to the single-A Florida State League in 2025 and the Triple-A Pacific Coast League this year.
In June 2025, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said he wanted teams to be accustomed to the ABS system before introducing the checked-swing challenge to the majors.
\u201cWe haven\u2019t made a decision about the checked-swing thing,\u201d Manfred said at the time<\/a>. \u201cWe do try to think sequentially about what\u2019s coming. I think we got to get over the hump in terms of either doing ABS or not doing it before you\u2019d get into the complication of a separate kind of challenge involved in an at-bat, right? You think about them, they\u2019re two different systems operating at the same time. We really got to think that one through.\u201d
Rohan Nadkarni is a sports reporter for NBC News.\u00a0
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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For YouSettings news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeThe Milwaukee Brewers are two wins away from the first World Series title in franchise history, and they got a little help from an incredibly close call Saturday night.With the Brewers leading 5-4 in the top of the ninth, the Rays had a runner on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":228739,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-228738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}