Yay - Chicago White Sox wins over Los Angeles Angels!! But there was a controversial call that ended up helping the White Sox in a big way.

A.J. Pierzynski was the batter in the 9th inning. He swung and missed for strike three. But the ball was very close to the ground when it was caught by the catcher. Rules say if the ball touches the ground on strike three, the catcher has to tag the runner or throw to first base for the out. That didn't happen so the batter ran to first base thinking the ball hit the ground... or did it?

There's no instant replay in Baseball for the Umpires to review the play. But the televised replays showed were dare I say inconclusive? The Umpire appeared to signal the batter struck out. But the batter turned into a runner, headed to first base and was later called safe. A pitch runner then stole 2nd just before the next batter hit a double for a tie-breaking RBI, thus ending in a 2-1 victory for the White Sox.

The big question is... Did the ball for A.J. Pierzynski hit the ground or not?

Regardless of the call made by the umpire it was great instincts by Pierzynski to run. If it wasn't a catcher at bat I doubt many other people would have done that. He has been burned like that before in similar situations. I really did look like a bad call and the umpire even signaled out before the catcher stood up. The sad part is that I don't think there is any way that they can overturn the call and take back what happened. I guess the Sox just caught a game winning break.

The umpire actually never made a "you're out" call. He called strike three. The play did seem to be called incorrectly. I've seen the replay probably 100 times and not once does it look like the ball hit the ground.

Alwind.