Down 2-1 in the top of the ninth, the New York Yankees had a rally going off of Los Angeles Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen when poor umpiring hurt them yet again.
What Happened?
Home plate umpire Gabe Morales is by no means the best umpire in the MLB, and had a fairly wide zone throughout the game. The controversy began early in the ninth when Gleyber Torres took two very high strikes to go down 1-2, but it wouldn’t matter as he singled with one down.
Following Gleyber, Brett Gardner hit a hard grounder to first and reached safely when Jedd Gyorko bobbled it on a diving attempt.
Now here’s where things get good. Gio Urshela swung at the first pitch he saw and hit a soft grounder to third baseman Justin Turner’s left. He fielded the ball and threw the ball softly to second to attempt to get Gardner.
Gardner slid hard into the bag, knocking over Max Muncy, but was called out on the force with Urshela reaching first. It was a clean slide into the bag, but Dodgers skipper Dave Roberts didn’t think so.
While everyone on the Dodgers was distracted, Gleyber Torres made a mad dash towards home, but Morales called time at the plate when Torres was about halfway there. He would’ve been safe and the game would’ve been tied.
Jansen did request time, but did so while Torres was headed down the line. It was like Morales assumed that the play was already dead.
Both managers came out to plead their cases, and in the midst of it all Aaron Boone requested a challenge at second, and it was overturned loading the bases.
However, Mike Tauchman and Gary Sanchez each struck out to end the game.
Here’s the play broken down by the one and only, Jomboy:
My Thoughts:
Saturday was just another example of umpires targeting the Yankees. They have constantly been victim to bad calls all year. Umpires can’t just call time when the play is live. Torres was already halfway down the line and the play was still live.
Major League Umpiring needs to be fixed. End of story.