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Adrian Sanchez was robbed. Say it was “too close to take” or whatever you want, but the 3-2 pitch he took for a called strike three was not a strike.
Washington was in danger of being shut out for the first time in 81 games this season, but the Nationals rallied in the ninth, scoring a run on a two-out RBI single by Stephen Drew that finally got them on the board, down 2-1 to the St. Louis Cardinals.
Bryce Harper walked to start the ninth with Cardinals’ closer Trevor Rosenthal on the mound, and Daniel Murphy singled with one down to put two on.
Stephen Drew stepped in with two on and two out after the Cardinals failed to turn a double play on an Anthony Rendon grounder to first, with Rosenthal failing to find the bag on the relay throw.
Drew lined a two-out single to left center to bring Harper in, 2-1, and Nats’ catcher Jose Lobaton, who took a foul ball off his arm the previous inning, after taking over behind the plate for Matt Wieters, walked to load the bases in front of pinch hitter Adrian Sanchez.
In his first major league plate appearance, after the 26-year-old infielder made his MLB debut as a pinch runner last night in St. Louis, Sanchez battled Cards’ right-hander Matt Bowman for nine pitches, and took what looked like ball four before Yadier Molina yanked it back and home plate ump Manny Gonzalez called it strike three.
Sanchez was robbed:
Adrian Sanchez was robbed (No. 9) called strike three to end game vs #Cardinals: pic.twitter.com/ye8aqhnFiv
— federalbaseball (@federalbaseball) July 2, 2017
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ROBOT UMPS NOW!!! AND FOREVER!!! SANCHEZ WAS ROBBED!!!!! ROBBED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dusty heaped praise on Sanchez for his AB: "You hate to have an at-bat like that and have it settled on apparently a bad call."
— Mark Zuckerman (@MarkZuckerman) July 2, 2017