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Umpire on Flores' checked swing: 'When it happened live, I thought he went'

Harry How / Getty Images Sport / Getty

The San Francisco Giants' historic 107-win season ended Thursday night on a controversial checked swing from Wilmer Flores that was ruled strike three on appeal by first base umpire Gabe Morales.

Following the game, the umpires were asked about the call, and while they didn't say it was wrong, they didn't exactly express confidence they'd made the right decision.

"Check swings are one of the hardest calls we have," Morales said when asked if he still felt the same way about the call after seeing replays, according to Jake Montero of KNBR. "I don't have the benefit of multiple camera angles when I'm watching it live. When it happened live, I thought he went, so that's why I called it a swing."

When asked whether he believed Flores offered at the game-ending pitch from Max Scherzer, Morales replied, "That's what I thought, yes."

The pool reporter followed up by asking, "And, I'm sorry, different feeling after the replay, or?"

Crew chief Ted Barrett stepped in and replied, "Yeah, no, we, yeah, yeah, he doesn't want to say."

Barrett also noted "some ambiguity" in the rule. He added, "(Umpires) do our best to try to be consistent, so players know what's a swing and what's not."

The division-rival Los Angeles Dodgers wound up advancing to the NLCS on the call, beating the Giants 2-1 with Flores getting rung up on an 0-2 pitch in the bottom of the ninth with a runner on first. The Dodgers will now face the Atlanta Braves in the best-of-seven series with the winner advancing to the World Series.

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