This could have been ugly: Pirates ball girl interferes on foul pop
The second-place Pittsburgh Pirates have a tough enough task of trying to chase down the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Central. The last thing the Bucs need to do is deal with ball girls getting in the way on foul pops.
Wednesday night, that's just what left fielder Starling Marte had to avoid during the Pirates' 4-1 victory over the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks.
With the Bucs up 3-0 in the top of the seventh inning, no one on base and one out, D-backs catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia lifted a Joakim Soria 0-1 pitch into foul territory down the left-field line.
Marte seemed to have a bead on the ball, but he had to pull up short because a ball girl got in the way (see video above). ... And she didn't even catch the ball.
Fortunately for her, Marte, the Pirates and their fans, it didn't matter.
Saltalamacchia grounded out to second on the next pitch, Soria struck out the next batter, the Pirates increased their lead in the eighth and went on to win 4-1.
Now back to chasing those Cardinals (77-43), who feature MLB's best record and lead the Pirates (71-47) by five games in the NL Central. Pittsburgh does lead the NL wild-card race by four games.
