Errors, odd call by ump help Cards win first ever wild-card game

ATLANTA -- The Braves' season ended with the help of what will be remembered as one of the most disputed infield fly calls in baseball history.

Trailing by three runs, Atlanta would have had the bases loaded with one out in the eighth inning. Instead, the Braves had runners on second and third with two outs, didn't score again and lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-3, in baseball's first one-and-done wild-card playoff game.

Just like that, the focus shifted from Chipper Jones' impending retirement to a call that led to a 19-minute delay caused by fans throwing debris and a protest by Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez that later was denied.

Andrelton Simmons' fly ball into shallow leftfield, which fell between shortstop Pete Kozma and leftfielder Matt Holliday, sparked the furor. Kozma got under it but veered away at the last moment, apparently believing that Holliday had called him off. Just before the ball dropped, leftfield umpire Sam Holbrook raised his arm to signal an infield fly, meaning Simmons was out.

The call came later than is usual on an infield fly and occurred on a ball that landed at least 50 feet beyond the infield.

Gonzalez ran onto the field and argued the call with Holbrook and other members of the umpire crew. Holbrook, crew chief Jeff Kellogg and umpire supervisor Charlie Reliford defended the call as coming on a play in which Kozma could make the play with "ordinary effort."

Ordinary? At least 50 feet from the infield? "Well, it's a judgment," Reliford said in a postgame news conference. "I think as you watch that tape, the guy was not only under it and clearly waving that he had it, I think he had reasonably stopped his momentum, and he was under it and it was clearly the correct call."

Asked about the timing of the call, Reliford said an infield fly call should not be made before the ball begins its descent.

Holbrook said he "absolutely" thought he made the right call after watching a replay. "I saw the shortstop go back and get underneath the ball where he would have had ordinary effort and would have caught the baseball, and that's why I called the infield fly," he said.

When play resumed, Brian McCann walked to load the bases but Michael Bourn struck out. Dan Uggla grounded out with two men on in the ninth to end it.

Gonzalez scolded Braves fans for littering the field and putting players and umpires in danger. "I think we have very passionate fans here in Atlanta, and I think I'm a little disappointed with the reaction of throwing bottles and beer cans and you name it," he said. "For me, that's uncalled for. I understand the disappointment. But we can't do that. As Atlanta Braves and people from Georgia, it doesn't look good, and I'm a little disappointed in our fans from that point. You get people injured out there."