National Sports

Roof helps Milwaukee clinch Saturday victory

MILWAUKEE -- As soon as he swung the bat, Ty France believed he had hit a two-run homer to put the San Diego Padres ahead in the ninth inning of their NL Division Series opener against Milwaukee.

Brewers manager Pat Murphy figured France’s drive was heading foul instead.

Neither was correct.

In one of the most bizarre plays in American Family Field’s 25-year history, France hit a towering flyball that seemed as though it might be headed over the left-field wall until it struck a cable on the roof of the stadium. The ball then fell into the glove of Brewers left fielder Jackson Chourio on the warning track for the second out of the inning.

One out later, the Brewers had secured a 3-2 victory Saturday night to take the early lead in this best-of-five series.

“We joked about it at the umpire meeting today about what would happen if the ball hit the roof,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “And it was unlikely -- but it happened.”

How unlikely?

“It’s the first time I’ve seen that in four years here,” said Brewers closer Trevor Megill, who gave up the long drive. “I had no idea what the ruling was until the home plate umpire came up and told me it’s a live ball, no matter what.”

Under the stadium’s ground rules, any batted ball striking the roof or one of its cables in fair territory is a fair ball that can be caught for an out. The Padres unsuccessfully challenged that France’s drive was a foul ball.

“Unfortunately, a bad break for us. Looked like it was a possible home run. Just didn’t go our way,” Stammen said.

49-degree angle

The game-changing play came with Dustin Harris on first base following a leadoff single. France’s drive left his bat at 105.3 mph with a 49-degree launch angle, and it was caught 325 feet from home plate.

Megill was asked after the game what he thought once France connected.

“Oh, crap,” Megill said. “I’ll keep it PG for you.”

There has never been a home run at American Family Field with a launch angle greater than 46 degrees since Statcast tracking started in 2015. And there have only been 10 homers hit over the fence at any major league ballpark during that period with a launch angle of 49 degrees or higher.

France, however, had no doubt the ball would have cleared the left-field wall if it hadn’t hit the cable.

“The biggest question was, was it going to stay fair or foul,” France said. “I thought I back-spun it, and it was going to stay fair. I knew it was going out. It was just unfortunate.”

Murphy disagreed.

“It was going to be a foul ball, for sure. I’m standing right on that line,” he said. “A hitter that talented, they would have liked to have that hitter back up there with another strike.”

Instead, Chourio was in the right place at the right time as the ball landed harmlessly in his glove.