St. Louis Cardinals Putout Ryan Howard in Ridiculous Fashion (GIF)

What. Mandatory Credit: Scott Rovak-USA TODAY Sports

The Philadelphia Phillies now have a 5 game winning streak going, after sweeping the Atlanta Braves and taking the first two of four games against the St. Louis Cardinals. It’s the longest win streak of the season for the team, and it’s only slightly more unlikely a feat than the RIDICULOUS Cardinals’ putout of Ryan Howard in the 9th inning of last night’s game.

Up 5-1 with a runner on first and two outs, Ryan Howard grounded out to Cardinals’ first baseman Matt Adams, and the ball bounced off of him and towards closer Trevor Rosenthal.

He subsequently bobbled the ball, fell over, and the ball slowly rolled back to Adams, making the most awkward looking putout you’ll ever see.

Howard was called out despite what appeared to be much more overt interference than what Will Middlebrooks did this past World Series, and the inning ended with everyone scratching their head (or, in the case of Tim McCarver, laughing until you cry).

I don’t know what the reasoning is for not calling that pitcher obstruction, as he’s clearly impeding the path of the baserunner. In fact, being unable to get out of the way of a baserunner after falling for the ball is the same argument that didn’t hold up for Middlebrooks last October. If anyone can provide a reasoning for the lack of a call in the comments, I’d appreciate it.

The Phillies still won the game in the end (AKA no one cares), it just appears to be an obvious call.

For the life of me, I’ll also never know how such an awkward, uncoordinated mess still resulted in an out – but if it isn’t fun to watch.