It's not often that we get to point out just how good an umpire is. Last night in the Nationals-Phillies game, Chase Utley was on third with Darin Ruf at the plate. Craig Stammen struck out Ruf but the ball got away from Nats back up catcher Jhonatan Solano and Utley scampered home.
Solano scrambled back to get the ball but Stammen hadn't yet gotten in position to field the ball as Utley was cruising in, so Solano dove back towards Utley and slapped the tag on his ribs just before Utley's hand hit the plate. Stammen did a nice roll over the top of Utley, too.
It was a serious Bang-Bang play and even Nationals' color commentator F.P. Santangelo thought the Nats caught a break. But after the commercial, the X-Mode camera showed clearly that home plate umpire Chris Conroy got it right: it was an inning ending, run saving double play. Nats won 3-2.
Pretty amazing play, damn good call.
Watch it here: http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2013_09_04_wasmlb_phimlb_1&mode=video&c_id=was
