Giants season ends on brutal check swing call, a breakdown
What Happened
Game 5 of the 2021 NLDS between the Giants and Dodgers, the two best regular-season teams in baseball (107 and 106 wins), was tied 1-1 in the ninth at Oracle Park. The Dodgers scrambled ahead when Justin Turner was hit by a 100 mph fastball, moved up, and scored on a Cody Bellinger single. Max Scherzer came on for his first career save and got two quick outs. With two strikes on Wilmer Flores, first base umpire Gabe Morales ruled Flores went around on a check swing for strike three, ending the Giants' season on a call with no replay to overturn it.
Why This Matters
Check swings are among the least defined calls in baseball. There's no fixed standard for what counts as a swing, and unlike balls and strikes, the call is not reviewable. Morales admitted afterward he thought Flores went when he saw it live but acknowledged he lacked multiple camera angles, a near-confession that the replay told a different story. For a 107-win Giants team that beat the Dodgers all year, having the season decided on a borderline judgment call rather than a clean swing or a definitive pitch felt like a cruel way to go out. The aftermath fueled renewed calls for MLB to review check swings, though the rule never changed. Scherzer earning his first career save at age 37 to close it out only sharpened the sting in San Francisco.
At 1.6M views it ranks 156th of 1583 Jomboy breakdowns, landing in the top 10% of the catalog, fitting for a call that ended a 107-win season.
Key Moments
Who / What Is Involved
Players: Cody Bellinger, Justin Turner, Gabe Morales, Max Scherzer, Trey Turner. Teams: Giants.
Key Terms Mentioned
Full Transcript
Click timestamps to jump to that momentthe giants and dodgers the two teams
that won the most games in the regular
season their seasons are on the line now
it's the fifth game of a best of five
series it's tied up one run a piece in
the ninth doesn't really get closer than
this Justin Turner's up with one out and
he's gonna wear that 100 mile per hour
fastball right on the arm um says hit
him there hit him there he goes to first
we know the rules blue we know the rules
he's got the pad on but it kind of
misses
gets a lot of flush so that sucks
dodger's got a runner on and this sex
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john boy now you get 15 off your first
month gavin lux is he roman ready is he
gonna get the job done yeah takes the
2-2 pitch sends it into right field he's
on base moves turner into scoring
position and up comes belly
awful regular season but looking to be
the postseason hero he gets a 1-2 pitch
and he's gonna take that to right center
and that's gonna score Justin Turner
rounds third comes home the dodgers have
the lead in the ninth inning let's go it
just becomes a big let's go fest the
biggest we've had let's [ __ ] go let's
go
let's [ __ ] go
let's [ __ ] go
let's go
let's [ __ ] go boy everyone's
screaming it's the most let's go as
we've had in a 30-second span and then
the bottom of the ninth up comes the
psychopath Max Scherzer for his first
career save gets the first out there now
a ball in play jt you know maybe his
left arm is hurting him from getting hit
by that pitch can't squeeze the glove or
maybe just botched an easy play is it
going to come back divide him in the ass
are the giants going to use it late
night lamont up one of the best hitters
in the ninth inning this season that's a
real thing
sits on that breaking ball by scherzer
1-0 gets himself in a good count 2-0 and
max drops the 78 mile per hour little
curve ball on the outside to get the
strike then they're going to bust him
back in and he's going to hammer it and
is that a walk-off home run as he did it
no it's foul ball it's just a home run
foul ball to get everyone hopes up busts
him in again
swing mode and then he's going to drop
this
back door oh man that's a good pitch
that we don't know if he did it on
purpose but turns out to be amazing
strikes out lamont and now it's one out
to go but the pressure is there look at
that pitch it's a nice pitch kenley's
excited he's excited usually he does the
saving but scherzer's got it
wilmer floors is up first pitch gets
when he go
looks like he wanted to pull the trigger
on this one let's watch it again and
can't and it's juicy if he could
strike one
next pitch
fouls that one back in the zone now one
strike away from the giant season being
over and the panic is settling in
and we're scared and we're just very
scared o2 pitch
diddy diddy they check and he says he
went and the first base coach is like
are you serious no
and Gabe Morales says yeah he he swung
and the moment that was building gets
just taken away from everyone it's not
it's not a swing
just not a
swing
he just didn't attempt at that he
thought about it for a second not a
swing and this guy's like what whoa what
that's how it's all going to end and
yeah just the bubble got burst in a
really weird way after the game gabe
baralus said the played umpire peeled
the check swing to me i thought he went
so i called it a swing
check swings are one of the hardest
calls we have i don't have the benefit
of multiple camera angles when i'm
watching it live when it happened live i
thought he went so that's why i called
it a swing it's a little speculative but
you can kind of infer that since he says
when i watched it live i thought he went
that maybe when he watched the replay he
doesn't fully agree maybe if he watched
the replay and agreed he would have said
i stand by my call i think he went
also on umpire saying i don't have the
benefit of multiple camera angles well
when watching it live well mlb
you can offer that to the umps to help
them make better calls and and just
review everything either way scherzer
sees the call he's got the save the
dodgers advance and then the next half
of this video is just the Max Scherzer
is a psycho video because
i mean he's i mean he's just psycho he's
like a raptor he's like a animal just
screaming in everyone's faces seeing how
wide he can get his mouth to go
it's just a whole thing they the whole
teammates come they swarm him they rip
off his jersey and then he just never
stops screaming and looking
wow
look at Trey Turner looking at him and
look how scary he looks i mean paul's
just laughing uh
that taylor in the background laughing
at him he's just screaming taylor's
still smiling at him they want to get
involved and everyone wants kind of
backs up and like wait no no no no like
you want to go in the mosh pit and then
you get in there and you're like oh wait
i'm not cut out for this i mean turner's
still just laughing at him look at
everybody's kind of laughing because
shirts are going crazy now he's just
going to hug everyone with a lot of
power a lot of force
there's kershaw you get a big old hug
you get a big squeeze on to the next guy
hurts that guy's hand hugs that random
guy
foaming at the mouth
yeah this [ __ ] about
i don't even think he says words here
watch this in slow-mo
i mean just foaming at the mouth he's
like oh yeah you want to dab up too yeah
let's [ __ ] go then let's hug
you like that [ __ ] it's my first career
save
scary stuff man
scary stuff
man this guy this guy he comes in he's
like i'll get involved here sure's like
oh yeah [ __ ] yeah
get away from me one thing you can't say
about scherzer is you can't say he
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