The San Francisco Giants are going to look back at Sunday’s loss to the Reds and wonder what could have been with that third-inning grounder.
With the Reds already up a couple runs in the third, Joey Votto hit a chopping grounder down the first-base line that Brandon Belt calmly fielded and stepped on first. It seemed simple enough in real time — an inning-ending groundout to first base. But first base umpire Gabe Morales gave Votto new life with a foul call.
It was initially unclear what Morales was seeing, but he appeared to rule that Belt’s glove was in foul territory when he fielded the ball in front of the bag.
Was this really foul? 😕 pic.twitter.com/brENtLSe4R
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) June 26, 2022
While it was tough to definitively tell from the replay angles provided, it did look like Belt fielded the ball in fair territory and swung his glove towards the line *after* already fielding the ball. By that, it should have been a fair ball and an out. The terribly flawed MLB replay rules don’t allow for fair-foul reviews in the infield, so the Giants were stuck with the ruling.
Votto and the Reds would take advantage of the fortunate call and tack on five more runs in the inning. The Reds won, 10-3, and as you could expect, Giants fans were not pleased with Morales there.
