The St. Louis Cardinals won baseball's first wild-card playoff, taking advantage of a disputed infield fly call to beat the Atlanta Braves 6-3 on Friday.
However, the call led to a wild protest from fans who littered the field with bottles, cans and other debris. The unsportsmanlike display quickly became the story of the night in baseball, overshadowing the St. Louis win. One of the game's announcers called the scene "embarrassing" for Braves fans.
Atlanta Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez stormed onto the field to argue against the controversial fly call as debris continued to rain down courtesy of the fans.
The protest caused an 18-minute delay in which an umpire watched replays until the game could resume, the call standing.
In a game protested by the Braves, Matt Holliday homered and the defending World Series champion Cardinals took advantage of three Atlanta throwing errors - the most crucial of them by the retiring Chipper Jones - to take the winner-take-all playoff 6-3.
The atmosphere was electric at the start of the game, a crowd of 52,631 battling its way through Atlanta's notorious rush-hour traffic to fill the place before the first pitch. Among those in attendance: former President Jimmy Carter and former Braves owner Ted Turner.
But the first game in the majors' new postseason round - and one-and-done matchup - will be remembered forever for a wild play in the eighth on a shallow fly to left field.
Watch the video of the post-game craziness below:
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
