No, the San Diego Padres didn't lose because of controversial ninth inning home run ruling

Read the original at Fox News ↗
Fox News · collected 2026-10-04 · by Ian Miller

Quick Summary

In Saturday night's Major League Baseball playoff game between the San Diego Padres and Milwaukee Brewers, controversy erupted during the ninth inning over a disputed home run ruling. Ty France hit a high fly ball that struck the roof support system at American Family Field before falling into play where it was caught for an out. Despite initial confusion among fans and players about the legitimacy of the call, MLB rules clearly state such a scenario is "In Play" and results in an out if caught by a fielder. The article focuses on explaining why the ruling favored the Brewers and discusses the debate surrounding potential rule changes for similar situations.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-04, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

### Summary of MLB Postseason Game: Milwaukee Brewers vs San Diego Padres (Game 1)

Event: NLDS (National League Division Series), Game 1

Teams Involved: Milwaukee Brewers vs San Diego Padres

Date: October [X], 2023

Venue: American Family Field, Milwaukee

#### Overview

The highly anticipated game between the top-seeded Milwaukee Brewers and the surging San Diego Padres lived up to expectations. The Brewers emerged victorious with a final score of 3-2.

#### Key Highlights

#### Final Score

### Analysis

The game was a microcosm of the season-long battle between these two clubs. Misiorowski’s effectiveness in his regular-season appearances was diminished by the Padres’ ability to work deep counts and foul off pitches, leading to an earlier exit than expected.

The late-game drama involving France's fly ball hitting the roof and being ruled fair brought a unique twist to this crucial playoff matchup. The Brewers managed to secure a narrow victory, setting up what promises to be an exciting series going forward.

### Next Up

This win provides the Brewers with home-field advantage and momentum heading into the remaining games of this best-of-five series.

Written for “Padres Brewers Nlds Game 1” on 2026-10-05, grounded in this article and the 10 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
This article does not take a side on a contested political question, so it has no leaning score. That is an answer rather than a gap: a match report or a rescue can be warmly or critically written without being left or right, and scoring it anyway is how approval of a subject gets recorded as a political position.
No political leaning scored for article 56069 · logged 2026-10-04

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
45
claim-shaped sentences
Uncertain
7%
3 of 45 hedged
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Correction & hedging signals
68.6
corrections and hedging in what we collected; not a measure of accuracy
Outlets on this story
11
Sports
Narrative spread
1
articles carrying this framing
Analyzed 2026-10-04 · how these are computed

Story

📰 Padres Brewers Nlds Game 1
Sports · 11 article(s) covering the same event. See how they differ ↓

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 7% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
New York Post
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 33 📰 publisher trust 64
“The articles describe different games involving the San Diego Padres: one against the Chicago Cubs in a Wild Card Series rematch, and another against the Milwaukee Brewers.”
New York Post
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 10% hedged 3 of 29 📰 publisher trust 64
“Both articles describe the same NL Division Series game between Milwaukee Brewers and San Diego Padres on October 4, 2026, including a key play where a potential go-ahead home run hit the roof.”
Toronto Star
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 8% hedged 3 of 39 📰 publisher trust 63
“Both articles describe the same NLDS game between San Diego Padres and Milwaukee Brewers on October 4, 2026, including a unique play in the ninth inning.”
Fox News
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 24 📰 publisher trust 69
“Both articles describe Game 1 of the NLDS between the Milwaukee Brewers and San Diego Padres on October 4, 2026, including a controversial home run call that affected the outcome.”
New York Post
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 14 📰 publisher trust 64
“The articles describe different games between the Cubs-Padres and Brewers-Padres, with distinct dates and contexts.”
Toronto Star
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 24 📰 publisher trust 63
“The articles describe different games; Article A is about the Padres' 8-0 victory over the Cubs in their Wild Card Series opener, while Article B refers to a later game involving the Padres and Brewers with drama surrounding a controversial home run ruling.”
New York Post
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 18 📰 publisher trust 64
“The articles describe different games involving the San Diego Padres; ARTICLE A refers to a Game 2 loss against the Cubs with an incident involving a pitcher and bench reaction, while ARTICLE B discusses a game against the Brewers.”
New York Post
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 10% hedged 1 of 10 📰 publisher trust 64
“The articles describe different games between San Diego Padres and two different teams (Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers) with distinct outcomes and dates.”
New York Post
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 4% hedged 5 of 121 📰 publisher trust 64
“The articles discuss different stages of the series; Article A mentions the upcoming NLDS matchup between Padres and Brewers after the Wild Card Series, while Article B describes a specific game during the NLDS.”
Fox News
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 12% hedged 2 of 16 📰 publisher trust 69
“The articles describe different aspects of the MLB playoffs involving the Padres and Brewers; one is about a betting promotion while the other covers a specific game with controversy.”

Publisher

Fox News · 2778 article(s) · 4 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 4 correction(s)
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Who wrote this

Ian Miller
13 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
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🔮 With four non-conference opponents, some schools could choose to schedule four likely wins, before entering SEC play.
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🔮 After what could be a season-changing win, the Gators moved up a whopping 13 spots to No. 8, one spot ahead of the Rebels.
🔮 Well, after three underwhelming performances against San Jose State, Louisiana and Rutgers, this was an opportunity to show that things really would be different in 2026.
Also by Ian Miller
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 13 articles by Ian Miller →

Topics

Brewers Major League Baseball Milwaukee Brewers Padres San Diego Padres

Subjects

France GPE · 5× Padres ORG · 3× Statcast ORG · 3× Brewers ORG · 2× Jackson Chourio PERSON · 2× Jacob Misiorowski PERSON · 1× Major League Baseball ORG · 1× Milwaukee Brewers ORG · 1× Misiorowski PERSON · 1× San Diego Padres ORG · 1×

Narrative

- Tyler O'Neill on April 26 — exit velocity 105.0, launch angle 49 degrees, distance 283 feet, result: fly ball out - Luis Robert Jr. on Aug. 30 — exit velocity 104.9, launch angle 49 degrees, distance 321 feet, result: fly ball out - Luis Robert Jr. on April 21 — exit velocity 104.8, launch angle 49 degrees, distance 323 feet, result: fly ball out - Pete Alonso on Aug. 5 — exit velocity 104.7, launch angle 49 degrees, distance 318 feet, result: fly ball out Expanding the search to 2024 and 2025, there were a number of other balls that met these exact characteristics.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-04
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Claims (45 extracted, 3 hedged)

If there's one thing the Major League Baseball postseason always delivers, it's drama. asserted
it → be → ?
And Saturday night's game between the San Diego Padres and Milwaukee Brewers certainly had more than its fair share. asserted
game → have → share
The Brewers entered the game and the series as big favorites, thanks in large part to likely NL Cy Young Award winner Jacob Misiorowski starting game one. asserted
Misiorowski → enter → game
Misiorowski has been nearly unhittable this season, with a minuscule 1.80 ERA, just 96 hits allowed all season, and 252 strikeouts in 174.2 innings. asserted
Misiorowski → allow → innings
But the Padres have been baseball's hottest team down the stretch, and were able to force him out after pushing across two runs in just four innings. asserted
Padres → force → innings
This page may contain affiliate links to legal sports betting partners. uncertain
page → contain → partners
If you sign up or place a wager, FOX News may be compensated. uncertain
News → sign → wager
This content was created by a team that works independently from the FOX newsroom. asserted
that → create → newsroom
But the Brewers battled back, tying the game on a Jackson Chourio homer and taking the lead late on another from William Contreras. asserted
Brewers → battle → Contreras
The Padres missed an opportunity in the top of the 8th, but started the 9th with the heart of their lineup facing closer Trevor Megill. asserted
heart → miss → Megill
Dustin Harris singled to lead off the ninth, Manny Machado struck out, and Ty France launched what's now become one of the most controversial fly balls in recent postseason history. asserted
what → single → history
While it looked at first glance like a potential go-ahead home run, or might fly harmlessly foul, France hit the ball so high it banged off the roof support system at American Family Field and fell into the field of play just onto the warning track in left field, where Jackson Chourio caught it for an out. uncertain
Chourio → look → out
Several minutes of discussion followed, with the umpires ruling on the field that it was, in fact, a fair ball and effectively a fly ball out. asserted
it → follow → fact
Many fans, and some of the players, were clearly confused, assuming that a ball hitting the roof would become immediately "dead" and the play restarted. asserted
play → assume → roof
By rule though, there's no question that the umpires made the correct call. asserted
umpires → be → call
Major League Baseball's ground rule page, specifically covering American Family Field, covers this exact situation. asserted
page → cover → situation
If the "Batted ball strikes roof, roof truss, roof cable, or any cabling over fair territory," the rule states, it's considered "In Play." "If caught by fielder," it continues, "batter is out, and runners advance at own risk." That's exactly what was determined on the field, and what the replay review confirmed. asserted
review → bat → what
The ball was in fair territory when it hit the roof, it fell down to the field of play where it was caught by an outfielder, and the hitter is out. asserted
hitter → hit → outfielder
Many fans, obviously most notably Padres fans, are convinced that the ball would have been a home run had it not hit the roof. asserted
it → convince → roof
France himself said as much after the game in the clubhouse. asserted
France → say → clubhouse
"You would think with all the technology we have now we’d be able to make a clear call on that," France said. asserted
France → think → that
We’ve got ball tracking. asserted
We → get → tracking
We’ve got exit velo. asserted
We → get → velo
We’ve got projected distances. asserted
We → get → distances
We have all that stuff. asserted
We → have → stuff
And that's where the second part of the controversy has continued, and even grown. asserted
part → continue → controversy
Had the ball not hit the roof, would it have been a game, and potentially series, changing home run asserted
it → hit → roof
France is right; we do have ball tracking, exit velocity and projected distances, thanks to the league's Statcast operation. asserted
we → have → operation
And those metrics all but confirmed one thing: that was not going to be a home run. asserted
that → confirm → thing
Statcast measured France's fly ball at 105.3mph exit velocity at a whopping 49 degree launch angle. asserted
Statcast → measure → angle
Well, it's hard to know exactly where the ball would have come down if unobstructed, but the shortest dimension is 342 feet directly at the foul pole. asserted
dimension → know → pole
Statcast predicted "expected" batting average, essentially how often balls hit with those exact characteristics become hits, was .050. asserted
balls → predict → characteristics
Balls hit 105.3mph at 49 degrees are outs 99.5% of the time. asserted
hit → hit → time
Thanks to Statcast, we can compare similarly hit baseballs with that exact launch angle and see the results. asserted
we → compare → results
- Tyler O'Neill on April 26 — exit velocity 105.0, launch angle 49 degrees, distance 283 feet, result: fly ball out - Luis Robert Jr. on Aug. 30 — exit velocity 104.9, launch angle 49 degrees, distance 321 feet, result: fly ball out - Luis Robert Jr. on April 21 — exit velocity 104.8, launch angle 49 degrees, distance 323 feet, result: fly ball out - Pete Alonso on Aug. 5 — exit velocity 104.7, launch angle 49 degrees, distance 318 feet, result: fly ball out Expanding the search to 2024 and 2025, there were a number of other balls that met these exact characteristics. asserted
that → expand → characteristics
Of the 15 batted ball events, including 2026, 14 were outs, with one double from Aaron Judge in 2024. asserted
14 → bat → 2024
The furthest a batted ball traveled with those exact numbers was 337 feet, a fly ball from Cody Bellinger in April 2025. asserted
ball → bat → April
But with the exact measurements available to us, not a single ball hit with that velocity and launch angle traveled far enough to cover the left field wall at American Family Field, even if it were directly down the line. asserted
it → hit → line
France, though, was convinced it was "going out. asserted
it → convince → ?
"I guess the biggest question was whether it was going to stay fair or foul," he said. asserted
it → guess → ?
…and 5 more, not listed.
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