The Philadelphia Phillies’ late-inning rally on Friday night got a little bit of help from the umpiring crew.
Philadelphia pulled off a come-from-behind win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Pa. The turning point came in the seventh inning when the Phillies were trailing 3-1.
They had two runners on and one out with star slugger Bryce Harper at the plate. On a 3-2 pitch outside from Pittsburgh’s Ryan Borucki, Harper checked his swing and appeared to go around. But upon the appeal to John Libka, the third-base umpire, Libka ruled that Harper had somehow held up.
As a result, Harper drew the walk, loading the bases. From there, the Pirates scored four times in the inning (on two more walks, a hit-by-pitch, and a sacrifice fly) and went on to win 8-4.
Pirates interim manager Don Kelly was irate about the check swing call and let his gripes be known. As a result, Libka ejected him from the game almost immediately.
Here is the video (in which you can see that Harper’s bat clearly appeared to cross home plate as even the television broadcasters said that they believed Harper had swung).
Pirates manager Don Kelly didn’t like this check swing call and got ejected pic.twitter.com/TRQOi5Xmrf
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) May 17, 2025
MLB rules remain unclear on what exactly constitutes a swing, often leaving it up to the subjective judgment of the umpiring crew. Perhaps Friday’s hard-to-believe call was simply karmic justice for Harper, who was once ejected (by Angel Hernandez of all people) for arguing an awful check swing call that went against him during a game against the Pirates in 2023.
