Cardinals Win on Disputed Call, Cubs Play to Tie

By ESPN

There was no dispute the St. Louis Cardinals shouldn't have won on Yadier Molina's double.

But they did -- because by the time Cincinnati figured out what happened, it was too late.

A game with playoff implications turned on a missed call Thursday night when Molina got credit for a winning double with two outs in the ninth inning to beat the Reds 4-3.

"I just kept my head down and kept running," Molina said. "I didn't really hear or see anything."

The Cardinals are one game behind San Francisco for the second NL wild-card spot. Each team has three games left.

Matt Carpenter drew a one-out walk from Blake Wood (6-5). With two outs, Molina's one-hop hit clearly bounced off a sign above the left-field wall and caromed back into play.

Carpenter kept running and scored from first. It should have been a ground-rule double, putting Carpenter on third. Instead, the Cardinals celebrated.

Reds manager Bryan Price ran after the umpires to argue. He said he was later told he had 10 seconds after Carpenter scored to appeal for a replay.

"It's a terrible rule," Price said. "I mean that's ridiculous."

The Cardinals hurried their on-field party and zipped to the clubhouse while the Reds milled around on the field waiting for something to happen.

Crew chief and plate umpire Bill Miller said he felt he gave the Reds enough time to ask for a replay.

"In this situation, Bryan Price did not come up to the top step," Miller told a pool reporter. "I looked into the Cincinnati dugout and Bryan Price made no eye contact with me whatsoever. And then after 30 seconds, he finally realized somebody must have told him what had happened and we were walking off the field."

There is no disputing that the ball hit the sign, which is considered out of play and a ground rule double should have been called.

Reds left fielder Adam Duvall said the ball "definitely hit the sign."

"I saw it. I heard it. There's a gap in between the sign and the fence. I wasn't sure if it was in play or not," he said.

Duvall retrieved the ball and made a relay home.

"I'm not blaming the umpires. I'm blaming the system," Price said. "You couldn't hear anything. And then all of a sudden, someone is screaming, `the ball hit the top of the back wall.' Which would have made it a ground-rule double."

Price and staff didn't get the message fast enough from their video review crew.

"Because of the crowd noise, we couldn't hear the phone ring," Price said. "There was no siren or blinking light to let you know."

Said Carpenter: "The ball's hit, I was running as hard as I can."

"It was a fun way to win a game," he said.

Molina and Jedd Gyorko hit solo homers for the Cardinals.

Cubs 1, Pirates 1

The Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates played to the first tie game in the major leagues since 2005 when rain forced the teams to stop in the sixth inning Thursday night with the score 1-all.

The Cubs and Pirates aren't scheduled to play again this season, and the game won't be made up because it doesn't affect postseason positioning. So instead of becoming a suspended game, the stats count and it was declared a tie -- the first since Houston and Cincinnati went seven innings on June 30, 2005, before rain halted them.

Willson Contreras had two hits and scored for the NL Central champion Cubs, who have already clinched the best record in the majors. Josh Bell hit a sacrifice fly for the Pirates.

The game was called in the top of the sixth after a delay of 1 hour, 23 minutes.

Tim Federowicz hit a sacrifice fly in the Cubs second. Pittsburgh tied it in the third.

Cubs rookie Rob Zastryzny gave up one unearned run in 3 2/3 innings in his first major league start after beginning his career with seven relief appearances.

Manager Joe Maddon opted to use all relievers as he prepares his team for the postseason.

After losing his previous two starts, Ivan Nova allowed one run and four hits in 5 1/3 innings with five strikeouts and no walks.

It was the final start of the season for Nova, who went 5-2 in 11 starts after being acquired Aug. 1 from the New York Yankees in a trade. He is eligible for free agency after the World Series.

Pittsburgh is 78-80 and needs to sweep its season-ending three-game series at St. Louis that starts Friday night in order to extend its streak of winning seasons to four. The Pirates had 20 straight losing seasons from 1993-2012, the record for major North American team professional sports.

Rays 5, White Sox 3

Chris Archer prides himself on his durability. That's why he didn't back out of his last start of the season, despite the prospect of becoming the majors' first 20-game loser since 2003.

The result was a confidence-boosting performance that got him to his goal of 200 innings.

Archer overcame a shaky seventh inning to avoid the dubious 20-loss milestone and lead the Tampa Bay Rays past the Chicago White Sox, 5-3 on Thursday night.

Archer (9-19) allowed three runs and six hits in 6 2/3 innings to help the Rays snap a six-game skid and leave Detroit's Mike Maroth as the only pitcher to lose 20 games this century.

"More than anything else, I'm trying to make every start and I'm trying to pitch 200 innings. That's my No. 1 priority," Archer said. "The first half of the season was up and down, so to accomplish that feat was really nice for me, personally."

Mikie Mahtook hit a solo homer in the fourth off Jose Quintana (13-12) and doubled and scored in a three-run seventh off Chicago's shaky bullpen.

Quintana allowed two runs and five hits over six innings for the White Sox, whose five-game winning streak ended despite Carlos Sanchez's two-out, two-run homer in the seventh.

Thursday, September 29 Scoreboard

Washington 5, Arizona 3

New York Yankees 5, Boston 1

Chicago Cubs 1, Pittsburgh 1 (F/6)

Baltimore 4, Toronto 0

Atlanta 5, Philadelphia 2

Minnesota 7, Kansas City 6

St. Louis 4, Cincinnati 3

Tampa Bay 5, Chicago White Sox 3

Los Angeles Dodgers 9, San Diego 4

Seattle 3, Oakland 2

San Fransciso 7, Colorado 2

Cleveland at Detroit, postponed

Friday, September 30 Schedule (All Times Central)

Toronto at Boston, 6 p.m.

Baltimore at New York Yankees, 6:05 p.m.

Miami at Washington, 6:05 p.m.

New York Mets at Philadelphia, 6:05 p.m.

Chicago Cubs at Cincinnati, 6:10 p.m.

Detroit at Atlanta, 6:35 p.m.

Tampa Bay at Texas, 7:05 p.m.

Minnesota at Chicago White Sox, 7:10 p.m.

Milwaukee at Colorado, 7:10 p.m.

Cleveland at Kansas City, 7:15 p.m.

Pittsburgh at St. Louis, 7:15 p.m.

San Diego at Arizona, 8:40 p.m.

Houston at Los Angeles Angels, 9:05 p.m.

Oakland at Seattle, 9:10 p.m.

Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco, 9:15 p.m.

Saturday, October 1 Schedule (All Times Central)

New York Mets at Philadelphia, 12:05 p.m.

Pittsburgh at St. Louis, 12:05 p.m.

Baltimore at New York Yankees, 3:05 p.m.

Miami at Washington, 3:05 p.m.

Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco, 3:05 p.m.

Chicago Cubs at Cincinnati, 3:10 p.m.

Cleveland at Kansas City, 3:15 p.m.

Toronto at Boston, 6:10 p.m.

Minnesota at Chicago White Sox, 6:10 p.m.

Detroit at Atlanta, 6:10 p.m.

Tampa Bay at Texas, 7:05 p.m.

Milwaukee at Colorado, 7:10 p.m.

San Diego at Arizona, 7:10 p.m.

Houston at Los Angeles Angels, 8:05 p.m.

Oakland at Seattle, 8:10 p.m.

Sunday, October 2 Schedule (All Times Central)

Toronto at Boston, 2:05 p.m.

Houston at Los Angeles Angels, 2:05 p.m.

Baltimore at New York Yankees, 2:05 p.m.

Tampa Bay at Texas, 2:05 p.m.

Miami at Washington, 2:02 p.m.

New York Mets at Philadelphia, 2:05 p.m.

Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco, 2:05 p.m.

Minnesota at Chicago White Sox, 2:10 p.m.

Oakland at Seattle, 2:10 p.m.

Detroit at Atlanta, 2:10 p.m.

Chicago Cubs at Cincinnati, 2:10 p.m.

Milwaukee at Colorado, 2:10 p.m.

San Diego at Arizona, 2:10 p.m.

Cleveland at Kansas City, 2:15 p.m.

Pittsburgh at St. Louis, 2:15 p.m.