Wilmer Flores – Syndication Server

Before Wilmer Flores’s check-swing controversy, the Giants benefited from a similarly bad call

Let’s remember that similarly bad call.

Look: I’m not trying to make San Francisco Giants fans feel better here. I get the fact that Wilmer Flores didn’t appear to go around for the game-ending strike three in Game 5 of the NLDS that gave the Los Angeles Dodgers a series-clinching victory.

I guess I’m pointing out the irony, and even a member of the Giants who was at the center of a previous check-swing controversy noted it.

Back in July, the Dodgers were up 3-2 with two outs in the ninth inning and the bases loaded. Darin Ruf was at the plate, and he appeared to go around on a 3-2 pitch from Kenley Jansen that the first base umpire called a check swing. Everyone was mad.

Umpire says no swing, which allows the Giants to tie the game and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts gets ejected immediately pic.twitter.com/HtDblfZFwg

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) July 23, 2021

Yep, and as writer Molly Knight pointed out, you could pinpoint that as the difference between the Dodgers winning the division or being a Wild Card:

Before casual fans freak out, this was the difference between the Giants and Dodgers in the NL West standings. It all evened out in the end. https://t.co/TvyPi7OFNN

— Molly Knight (@molly_knight) October 15, 2021

Heck, even Ruf cited it on Thursday after the loss:

Darin Ruf says he didn’t think Flores went. But: Points out that his own check swing call went Giants way at the end of the season, helped them win the division.

— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) October 15, 2021

These things happen, sometimes calls get evened out, sometimes they don’t. That’s the way of the world.

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Did Wilmer Flores check his swing on controversial strikeout call to end Game 5? Let’s look closer

Giants fans are NOT happy.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are moving on to the NLCS … except there are San Francisco Giants fans who thought the at-bat of Wilmer Flores should have continued instead of ending the game with a check-swing strikeout.

It just stinks that the NLDS matchup between the two longtime NL West rivals had to end with a questionable call — at least to the angles we all saw from cameras — and not with a more definitive play.

But here we are. And it’s time to break it all down and see what we all think. Was this a check-swing for Flores with a man on first and Max Scherzer pitching?