Controversial play at plate concludes Pirates' walk-off defeat

"There wasn't a doubt in my mind. I don't think anybody really on the field would disagree," Bart said. "But, it's part of the game, and unfortunately it cost us. So, I don't know. I don't really know. I would love someone to have some sort of explanation to what went down right there, because everything I've seen was that he was out. Video shows it. At the end of the day, it's not up to me, it's not up to us. They're going to make the call. Whoever's in New York's going to decide on that. So, unfortunately it just didn't work out for us." 

Bart said he was just trying to make the most athletic play he could when he took a Michael A. Taylor throw from center field, dove to his left and made the tag on a sliding Cody Bellinger. After making the tag, Bart attempted to show home-plate umpire Chris Conroy that he had possession of the ball when contact between Bellinger and Bart caused it to come out of his hand. 

"I feel like I totally secured the ball," Bart explained. "If you go look at the video, he's out, I'm showing the umpire the ball. Kind of what you're taught as a catcher, there's another play going on. And so, secure that out and get ready for the next play. Someone's out there running around the bases, so that's kind of where my mind is at." 

Bellinger, who delivered a one-out double off David Bednar prior to Christopher Morel's walk-off single to center, was ruled safe at the plate before Derek Shelton and the Pirates elected to challenge the ruling. The call on the field was eventually confirmed, allowing the Cubs to win the third of a four-game series. 

"The way I saw the play, there's a presentation of the ball. There's a voluntary presentation in anything, like when there's a fly ball in the outfield, a fly ball in the infield," Shelton said. "My interpretation is Joey presented the ball. There's another runner on base, so he's presenting the ball to show the umpire that he's out. So you see him secure, and you see tag and you see him take the ball out, and there's contact with Bellinger. The way, again I see it, that's voluntary that he's taking the ball out and that it's a tag."

Shelton credited both Taylor and Bart for the execution of the play, despite not getting the ideal final result. 

"Michael made an unbelievable play. He comes up and makes a really strong throw to the plate," Shelton said. "Bellinger's a good runner, and we have a situation where we think we have an out at the plate."

In the end, Taylor stood with Bart and Shelton in disagreement with the call.

"What I saw on the replay, it looked like he tagged him on the foot and he was out. Maintained possession through the play, went to show the umpire and then Bellinger hit the ball out of his hand," Taylor said. "I don't think he did it intentionally, but you can see he had a firm grip of the ball until Bellinger made contact. In my eyes, he was out right there and MLB made a mistake."

The controversial play at the plate ended a game that lacked offense with only nine combined hits and featured a pitchers' duel between Bailey Falter and Shota Imanaga. 

Both enjoyed unblemished outings as far as runs are concerned. Falter had a career-best performance by allowing just three hits and two walks in a career-high 7 2/3 innings. He produced eight outs via ground balls and eight more on fly balls, as he navigated his way through his third career showing of seven-plus innings. 

Falter credited Bart for making the biggest difference in his performance. 

"We got together before just because I faced these guys last time, so we just sharpened our tools a little bit, kinda remembered what we did last time and just tried to attack these guys as much as possible," Falter said. "Joey called a great game and the defense played awesome behind me, so wouldn’t be able to do it without them.” 

After Paul Skenes' six no-hit innings on Friday, Falter made it back-to-back days in which a Pirates starter has gone six-plus scoreless innings while allowing three hits or fewer. That's the seventh time it's happened over the last 21 seasons in franchise history. The last time it occurred in consecutive games was in May 2022 when Zach Thompson and Jose Quintana accomplished the feat. 

"He was on the attack," Bart said. "We used the off speed a little bit more today. And, he was on the go. Just getting off the barrel a little bit, getting on the hands, getting under the barrel, a lot of fly balls, a lot of ground balls. So, he was excellent. It was hot out there, he was grinding through it. All around, I thought we did an excellent job, obviously, on the pitching side. So, just didn't really catch a break there at the end, but I guess we'll be ready to go tomorrow." 

A day after featuring six players with mult-hit showings in a 15-hit attack, the Pirates' bats went silent against a collective pitching performance Imanaga.

He limited the offensive output to just four hits -- two of which came on back-to-back singles by Jared Triolo and Bart in the seventh -- and a walk in seven innings. He struck out seven while relying heavily on his four-seam fastball and splitter, generating a combined 22 whiffs with those two pitches. 

"The league's going to have to figure this out. The guy's throwing out a point-seven ERA or point-ERA through six starts in the big leagues," Shelton said of Imanaga's effectiveness. "I think it's going to be us, collectively as a league, trying to figure this guy out, because that's a good start."