[jdm]

"Al, I'm with you on this one, touch the ground or not, the catcher should always make that tag just to be sure; Molina would have. It was close enough to do it anyway."

Since millions of people, myself included, saw the catcher catch the ball cleanly why on earth would he be tagging anyone?

[giobruno]

Because you are watching a replay, in slo-mo, with zoom lens, and from another angle entirely--and the ball was still very, very close. The ump is behind the glove and often has to go by the sound of dirt, probably made by the glove. Anything down along the ground like that and the catcher should always tag him, I mean the hitter is just standing there, it's standard procedure.