Welcome back, 2005! The umps are at it again! We already know the umps kept the Sox in the race by giving them last Saturday’s Twins game, not only keeping them from being 7-1/2 out and reeling at 1-7 for the last 8 games, but propelling them to a 5-game “win” streak, while propelling the Twins to a long losing streak and eliminating them. Tonight, the umps blatantly gave the game to the Sox again. The Sox’ TV announcers admitted the calls Saturday and tonight were terrible.
I watch very few games and only parts of games, but every time I watch a game, I see the opponents give the Sox the game, the umps give the Sox the game, or both. Just think of all of these instances I miss! Again, tonight, I saw part of the game, and fortunately saw the part where the umps just gave the game to the Sox. This was a key game, as Detroit played Cleveland, and if Detroit won, the Sox would be 6 out if they lost and not gain ground on Cleveland, and if Cleveland won, would not lose ground to Detroit and would lose ground to Cleveland. If the Sox won and Detroit lost, they would pull to within 4. It turns out Detroit does lose, by hitting Fukudome with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 14th–typical event to benefit the Sox (2 of the 3 runners on base walked, of course). Let’s see what happened tonight.
1. Sox lead 3-0. Morel is up, 2 outs, nobody on, 3-1 count. A hitter sits on a fastball on 3-1, as he knows the pitcher doesn’t want to walk him. A walk doesn’t really hurt you in this situation, as you have a better chance of trying to retire him on an offspeed pitch since he’s sitting fastball, and if you miss, facing Pierre, than grooving a fastball to him. Of course the pitcher grooves a fastball, and he almost hits it in the upper deck to make it 4-0 (the “winning” run).
2. Baltimore scores 3 runs in an inning (5th?) to pull within 4-3 and has runners on first and second, one out. They have a lot of momentum and every batter is reaching base. Guerrero is up. I’ve said for over 30 years that attempting to steal third is the most stupid play in sports (unless, as a friend pointed out, it’s Rickey Henderson in his prime), but the Orioles try the double steal. The runner is clearly safe at third, giving Baltimore second and third, one out, with all the momentum of batter after batter reaching. The only problem is that since the runner was clearly safe, the ump called him out. The Baltimore manager was ejected, and of course, this call prevented the Orioles from scoring again that inning, giving the Sox the game.
3. The Orioles have the tying run on third in the 7th inning, with one out. There is a lefty on deck. It’s obvious to anyone with a brain that the Sox will bring in a lefty to face the on-deck lefty, meaning that batter will have very little chance. Therefore, the current batter has to get the run in. Does the manager squeeze? No, and the batter doesn’t get the run in. The Sox bring in the lefty, and he retires the lefty. It was an obvious squeeze situation (as it was in the Twins game), but again, these managers have no clue and continue to lose games as a result. Now, you can say that sometimes the squeeze doesn’t work. Fine. Let’s be aggressive and assume it fails half of the times I say they should squeeze. Those Sox wins that would have been losses in the other half of those games would have them basically eliminated by now.
Sox “beat” Cubs 1-0 due to the Beckham call, beat the Twins due to the call at second, and win tonight due to the call at third. All of these horrible calls came in key games to keep the Sox’ hopes alive.