Atlanta Braves post-season history: why Sam Holbrook is a villain

We really can’t say that this incident was the most egregious sin against the Braves in post-season history… but it was really close.

It happened seven years ago this week.  For many Atlanta Braves fans, it’s laser-etched into their neurons.  For some others, the details might be a little fuzzy – after all, an instantaneous event like this can be hard to process… which was certainly seemed the case for the umpire involved.

For these reasons and for newer fans that might not be up on the details, let’s review that fateful night in 2012 in which the Atlanta Braves – and a strong majority of the fans in the stadium – went utterly apoplectic.

A Do or Die Game

October 5, 2012.  The NL Wild Card game. The Braves came in as favorites – the home team and winners of 94 games during the regular season.  The Cardinals sneaked in over the Dodgers with an 88-74 record.

Atlanta went with Kris Medlen in this game over Tim Hudson:  10-1 with a 1.57 ERA in just 12 starts that year, which included 2 complete games.

This was his first Summer back into action after his first Tommy John reconstruction in 2011, and he had (obviously) been pitching much better than expected.

The Braves lineup started like this:

• Michael Bourn
• Martin Prado
• Jason Heyward
• Chipper Jones
• Freddie Freeman
• Dan Uggla
• David Ross
• Andrelton Simmons
• Medlen

Yep – that’s a 90+ win offense.

The Braves got the scoring started in the 2nd inning thanks to a David Ross home run that followed a Dan Uggla walk.  2-0 for the home team.

Medlen started off very well:  2 strikeouts in the 1st with a hit batsman harmlessly ignored as a groundout finished the frame.

In the 2nd and 3rd innings:  6 up, 6 down.

In the 4th, the Braves train edged off the tracks a bit as the Cardinals broke through:

• single
• throwing error on Chipper as he tried to turn a grounder into a double play.  Instead of 2 outs and nobody on, the Cards now had a 1st-and-3rd situation with none out.
• a double scored Carlos Beltran; a groundout scored Matt Holliday
• a sacrifice fly plated Allen Craig.

3-2 Cardinals, though you could argue Medlen deserved a better fate.

Piling On

Medlen righted the ship in the 5th with another 1-2-3 innings, but Matt Holliday got to him for a solo shot in the 6th… 4-2 Cardinals.

But it was once again the Braves’ defense that betrayed matters in the 7th:

• Throwing Error on Uggla – batter-runner David Freese to second base.
• Sac bunt to move Freese to third.

A pitching change happened here – Chad Durbin came into the game.

• Immediately thereafter, Andrelton Simmons also made an error – in his anxiety to make a play, he airmailed a throw home on a grounder.
• That scored Freese and put Pete Kozma on second.  5-2.

Another pitching change:  enter Johnny Venters.

An infield single off Venters got away enough for Kozma to come all the way around and score.  6-2.

A double play ended this nightmare… or so we thought.

Bottom of the 7th

Cardinals starter Kyle Lohse was out of the game, have been replaced by Lance Lynn during the bottom of the prior inning.  After the festivities in the top of the 7th, Lynn was also out and Edward Mujica now replaced him on the mound.

Simmons popped out the shortstop… really.  In truth, he did this a lot… 17.5% of the time that season and slightly higher in 2013 before he got that figured out a bit.

After that, Jose Constanza of all people (hitting for Venters), tripled.  A Bourn grounder scored him to make it 6-3.

Prado then singled to start the merry-go-round over again.  Exit Mujica and enter ‘Scrabble’ – Marc Rzepczynski.

Heyward doubled, but Chipper Jones was unable to capitalize on the 2-out chaos and grounded out to end the best sustained threat the Braves had mustered.

Happily, the Braves’ defense rallied in the 8th:  2 singles against Eric O’Flaherty were mitigated by a double play.

That brings us to the fateful end of the 8th inning… with a 6-3 deficit.

By the Book

For playoff games, MLB assigns 6 umpires.  2 extras are installed along the left-/right-field lines for sake of boundary calls and interference checks.  As replay review has become the norm, one could argue that these extra umps are superfluous, but that’s not the stance taken by MLB.

As a result of this, umpires stationed ‘out there’ have a different perspective of the field from what they’re used to seeing.  Most of the action is now in front of them as opposed to working the infield where things are often happening behind them.

Whether this factor was at work on that night in the mind of Left Field guard Sam Holbrook is unknown.  What is known is that a rule intended to remove a game exploit was stretched in meaning well beyond the breaking point.

At this point, let’s remind ourselves what that rule states and why it came into being.

In the Official MLB Rule Book, this topic comes under the Definitions of Terms section, beginning on page 145.

It’s lengthy, but here’s the relevant parts (emphasis noted):

An INFIELD FLY is a fair fly ball (not including a line drive nor an attempted bunt) which can be caught by an infielder with ordinary effort, when first and second, or first, second and third bases are occupied, before two are out. The pitcher, catcher and any outfielder who stations himself in the infield on the play shall be considered infielders for the purpose of this rule.

The next paragraph includes a disclaimer for the ambiguity of a fly ball near the foul line.  The one after that talks about the ball being ‘live’ with runners being allowed to advance at their own risk.

It is instructive, though, to consider the reason that this rule is in the book in the first place.

The intent and purpose was to foil infielders’ savvy attempts to exploit the plight of runners in this situation.

With an infield pop-up and multiple runners aboard, an infielder could allow the ball to drop in front of them, then – since the runners are forced to freeze in position – grab the ball and get a cheap double play by nailing the lead runners.

The situation still exists since balls judged to be line drives (even ‘soft’ liners) can still achieve the same effect without invoking the Infield Fly Rule.  But this – combined with an ‘intentional drop’ rule (5.09a(12), page 42) has mitigated the practice quite a bit.

Unfortunately, the manner in which this rule was penned introduced some (probably) unintended consequences… and it’s those consequences that bit the Braves that night.

Zero Hour

So what happened in that inning?

• Mitchell Boggs replaced Scrabble on the mound.
• Freddie Freeman… who was 3 for 4 on the game… walked on 8 pitches.  No wonder we love this guy.
• Dan Uggla grounded out, forcing Freeman at second.
• David Ross (also 3 for 4), singled to center.  One out, runners at first and second.

That brought Simmons back to the plate.  He saw 5 pitches, and then lifted a ball that’s identified benignly in the scoring account as “Popfly, SS”.  But while it was another of Simmons’ pop-ups, this wasn’t of the infield variety.

In was nearly 20 minutes before another pitch was thrown in the game as pandemonium ensued and virtually every loose bottle in the lower stands ended up on the field.

The ball, by many accounts, landed some 235-240 feet from home plate, landing between Holliday and Pete Kozma.  A shortstop normally plays near the outer edge of the infield dirt and Kozma was on the dirt when the play started.  That required something on the order of 60-70 feet to travel to get to the ball.

Could Kozma have caught the fly?  Yes.  In fact, he called for it during the play, but then seems to have decided that it was Holliday’s ball – perhaps because he heard Holliday hollering or perhaps he decided that Holliday would have a better chance to make a throw.

It’s also quite possible that Kozma thought that he was in trouble – a careful review of the video shows he had overrun the ball and it actually landed behind where he had been.

Either way, Kozma bailed, Holliday was clueless (he wasn’t that close to being able to help), and the ball found grass.

Sam Holbrook, roaming the left field line, was the only umpire who – eventually – issued the infield fly rule call.

It wasn’t immediately declared as the rule requires, which certainly indicates that there was doubt in Holbrook’s mind about the call.

In fact, the notion that he made call only after seeing Kozma come into the area (you can’t see it happen from the video, but he was parallel to the action at that distance) suggests that perhaps the ‘ordinary effort’ clause should have been closer to the front of his mind on the play.

Uggla and Ross both advanced on the play, but after Holbrook’s declaration – and the 19 minute delay to clean up the field – the Braves didn’t have a bases-loaded-one-out scenario.

It was 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs instead.

Brian McCann walked and Tyler Pastornicky ran for him as Jason Motte had come into the game.  Michael Bourn struck out to end the threat with no runs scoring.

Had the inning continued, Martin Prado was next (1 for 5 that night), though the key AB would have been McCann’s. 

McCann was pinch-hitting, but Motte would have been forced to pitch to him without a base being open.  Instead, he walked on 5 pitches.

St. Louis held on in the 9th despite minor skirmish of base-runners with Dan Uggla ending the game on a groundout while representing the tying run.

In the end, the Braves can certainly blame themselves:  3 costly errors and 12 hits that mostly weren’t cashed in.  But it was a rally that was alive and well in the 8th that will be remembered forever.