Ump show: Were Braves gifted a win to make up game on Phillies in NL East?

After the Atlanta Braves offense finally showed signs of life in a 6-1 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday evening, Paul Skenes took ump the mantle of making sure it didn't happen again. And the young rising superstar for the Buccos indeed did his job, as did Max Fried for the Braves, while the bullpens came in and did their work as well. The result? A 1-1 tie after nine innings and heading for extras.

That's when things got put into the hands of the umpires, at least somewhat. Speedy Pirates right fielder Edward Olivares was the ghost runner to start the top of the 10th and advanced to third on a groundout to begin the inning. It became a hectic scene when Braves reliever Daysbel Hernandez then had a pitch scoot by catcher Travis d'Arnaud and to the backstop, sending Olivares home. And it appeared Pittsburgh had taken the lead as the call was safe at the plate.

However, Atlanta manager Brian Snitker called for a replay and, after review, the umps overturned the call. Their overturned call was that Olivares' front leg bounced up and over the plate, allowing Hernandez to apply a tag to the runner's head and neck before the trail leg hit the base.

But did the umps get the call right? Some Pirates fans at least had to think there was a case for Olivares being safe after the initial call was safe.

Did umps gift Braves a win with extra-innings replay at the plate?

Here's an up-close look at the play and you can be the judge of if we were watching the Ump Show or just a great Braves defensive play.

If you were playing devil's advocate, you could say that it's so extremely close to when the back leg hits the plate and when you can definitively say that Hernandez tagged Olivares that there's no way to overturn the initial safe call on the field.

I, however, don't subscribe to that. If you're upset with this call, you're likely just upset that Olivares isn't a step faster -- and that the Braves got a friendly ricochet from the wild pitch off of the brick backstop behind home plate. It was painfully close with the play at the plate, but Olivares looked out.

So when Adam Duvall took to the plate and knocked a big double to drive in Luke Williams and give the Braves a walk-off 2-1 win, it wasn't a gift and a grand conspiracy to tighten the NL East race with the Phillies losing earlier in the day. For once, the ump show was the umps getting it right.