Brewers beat Padres 3-2 after roof cable interrupts ninth-inning drive

Milwaukee defeated San Diego 3-2 in their National League Division Series opener on Saturday after a ninth-inning drive by Ty France struck a roof cable and remained in play. According to an agency report published by The Guardian, Jackson Chourio caught the ball for an out, helping the Brewers protect their narrow lead in a finish shaped by the stadium's ground rules.

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The Padres had a runner on first base and one out when France sent the ball towards left field against closer Trevor Megill. After Chourio's catch recorded the second out, Megill got Jackson Merrill to fly out to right field to end the game. San Diego challenged the ruling on whether France's drive was fair or foul, but the out stood after review.

At American Family Field, a ball remains live if it strikes the roof, a roof truss, a roof cable or other cabling above fair territory. A subsequent catch can therefore retire the batter. Contact with those structures above foul territory instead makes the ball dead, while a ball that strikes a structure over fair ground and then lands foul is ruled foul.

Whether France would otherwise have hit a home run remained disputed. Padres manager Craig Stammen believed the drive had that potential, while Brewers manager Pat Murphy said it would have gone foul from his view along the line. Stammen also said the possibility of a ball hitting the roof had come up during the pregame meeting with umpires.

Chourio had already contributed a two-run homer that tied the game before making the late catch. He said he had not been certain the ball struck anything and was unsure of the rule, but noticed a change in its direction while tracking it. France questioned the outcome and argued that technology should allow a clearer determination of such plays.

San Diego had experienced a similar incident in August, when Xander Bogaerts hit a drive that struck a catwalk at Tropicana Field and was caught by Tampa Bay third baseman Junior Caminero. In Saturday's other division series openers, Tampa Bay beat the New York Yankees 1-0, the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated Atlanta 5-3, and the Chicago White Sox beat Cleveland 3-0.