Should Hunter Pence's Double Have Counted?
The San Francisco Giants completed their 3-1 series comeback against the St. Louis Cardinals to reach the World Series for the second time in three years. A big reason that the Giants won Game 7 was Hunter Pence's bases clearing, broken bat double in the five run third for San Francisco, but should the double have counted?
According to MLB rules, Rule 6.05 states, "A batter is out when... (h) after hitting or bunting a fair ball, his bat hits the ball a second time in fair territory. The ball is dead and no runners may advance."
When you look at Pence's hit in super slow speed, you can see the ball bounce off the bat a second time after the bat broke, so it appears as if the ball was indeed struck a second time, technically.
It was nearly impossible to tell in real speed, so, really the Cardinals couldn't complain about it and, since the Cards were shutout, it didn't totally win the game for the Giants.
The Cardinals only have themselves to blame for blowing a 3-1 series lead and only scoring one run in the last three games of the NLCS. Still, it was a great first season for Mike Matheny and his Cardinal squad.
