I hate to see officials impact a game in the playoffs in a significant way. Last night, in Arizona, Justin Upton was called for runner interference in the bottom of the seventh inning, while breaking up a double play at second base. The Diamondbacks were trailing 5-1 at the time. They had 0 outs, and runners on first and second. Importantly, the Rockies starter, Jeff Francis had left the game. Upton was on first, when a ball was hit to third base. The throw went to second baseman Kaz Matsui covering second base. Upton slid in with a very short slide to the homeplate side of the bag, popped up on impact with the bag and rolled up into Matsui with his arm partially extended. It was ruled runner interference.  It was very much like a slide by the Mets Marlon Anderson against the Phillies in a crucial game during the first series sweep. Like the Anderson play, Upton was called out and so was the runner at first. This killed the D’Backs rally. They did load the bases, but with no margin for error, had a fly out to end the inning without scoring.

Was the umps call correct? You be the judge.