CHICAGO \u2014 The first inning of these NL Division Series games between the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers have been absolutely wild.<\/p>\n
Both teams have scored in the first inning of every game in this series, including a combined five runs in Wednesday night\u2019s Game 3 at Wrigley Field.<\/p>\n
The Cubs scoring four runs was a veritable offensive explosion, but what occurred in the top of the first had their fans up in arms.<\/p>\n
[MORE: What we learned in Cubs\u2019 nail-biting Game 3 win<\/a>]<\/p>\n The Brewers quickly put two runners on against Cubs starter Jameson Taillon<\/a> with one out. Milwaukee catcher William Contreras<\/a> came up to the plate and promptly skied a pop-up into the air on the infield.<\/p>\n The ball landed 60 feet up the first-base line, and since the entire Cubs infield converged on the ball, the Brewers\u2019 runners were able to advance without a throw.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the full play:<\/p>\n Of course, that play led to a Brewers run, as the next batter, Sal Frelick<\/a>, hit a sacrifice fly.<\/p>\n So, why wasn\u2019t it ruled an infield fly and Contreras automatically called out? It\u2019s very possible the Cubs could have escaped the jam without a single run scoring if so.<\/p>\n Here is the definition of an infield fly, per MLB<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cAn infield fly is any fair fly ball (not including a line drive or a bunt) which can be caught by an infielder with ordinary effort when first and second or first, second and third base are occupied, before two men are out.\u201d<\/p>\n The key part of that phrase is \u201cordinary effort.\u201d<\/p>\n On this particular pop-up, it\u2019s hard to argue any Cubs defender would have caught it with \u201cordinary effort\u201d once first baseman Michael Busch<\/a> lost it in the sun.<\/p>\n Busch immediately threw his hands up when the ball was hit, forcing Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner<\/a>, shortstop Dansby Swanson<\/a> and catcher Carson Kelly<\/a> to start sprinting toward the ball \u2014 which ended up helplessly landing on the infield grass.<\/p>\n Umpire supervisor Larry Young was on site at Wrigley Field and spoke to a pool reporter about the play.<\/p>\n \u201cThe basic thing that we look for is ordinary effort,\u201d Young said. \u201cThat\u2019s in the rulebook. We don\u2019t make that determination until the ball has reached its apex \u2014 the height \u2014 and then starts to come down. When the ball went up, initially everybody thought it was going to be ordinary effort, even the batter (Contreras). He wasn\u2019t too sure if he was going to run, then he started to run.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it reached the height, the umpires determined that the first baseman (Busch) wasn\u2019t going to make a play on it, the middle infielder (Hoerner) raced over and he wasn\u2019t going to make a play on it, so ordinary effort went out the window at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n The Cubs didn\u2019t disagree with the call.<\/p>\n