The Chicago Cubs got a bit of help from the man in the mask during Thursday’s winner-take-all game.
Chicago met the San Diego Padres for the decisive Game 3 of their best-of-three NL Wild Card Series on Thursday. The Cubs were nursing a 3-0 lead entering the ninth inning at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Ill.
However, the Padres kept themselves alive with a solo home run by outfielder Jackson Merrill to lead off the ninth inning, bringing the score to 3-1. San Diego infielder Xander Bogaerts was up next and worked a 3-2 count against Chicago reliever Brad Keller.
Bogaerts then took what should have been ball 4 down below the knees. However, home plate umpire DJ Reyburn inexplicably called Bogaerts out on strikes on the pitch, which seemed to be at least a full baseball’s length below the zone. Here is the video of the horrendous call.
BRUTAL strike three call on Xander Bogaerts would've been ball four pic.twitter.com/h7aiAqNleN
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) October 3, 2025
If not for that call, the Padres would have had Bogaerts at first with no outs and the tying run at the plate. Making matters worse is that Keller hit the next two consecutive Padres batters, which would have given San Diego the bases loaded with nobody out.
Chicago then turned to fellow reliever Andrew Kittredge, who got Jake Cronenworth to ground out on a softly-hit bouncer (which could have foreseeably scored a run from third). The game then ended when Freddie Fermin flew out to a deep ball to center (which could have also foreseeably scored another run from third on a sacrifice fly).
The Cubs, who now advance to the NLDS to face the Milwaukee Brewers were definitely the better team overall on Thursday, holding the Padres scoreless through eight innings. But in that decisive ninth inning, Chicago sure got a helping hand from Reyburn, who has been drawing the ire of MLB players for nearly a full decade now.
Meanwhile, MLB’s automatic ball-strike challenge system (ABS) already got tested in this year’s All-Star Game but won’t be arriving on a full-time basis until next season. That call by Reyburn to effectively end the Padres’ season can serve as Exhibit A as to why the ABS system is so necessary at this point.
