There’s a new statistic I’ll be keeping track of during O’s games: blown calls. And the way the umpires are calling the Orioles games this season, I should be quite busy. You might think I’m just saying that, as an avid O’s fan, but luckily the replays back me up. So, how many blown calls does it take to allow the opposing team to win the game? So far, there have been 2 blown calls, but the game is still knotted at 4 going into the tenth.
Here’s the situation: It’s the bottom of the eighth inning, no outs, the score is tied at 4, and the Orioles have a runner on first and second. Everyone and their mother knows that the hitter is going to be bunting. So the pitch is thrown, Matos squares to bunt, but the ball comes at his chest. Matos tries to get out of the way, but the ball slams into his fingers that are wrapped around the barrel of the bat as he’s pulling back his bunt attempt. He starts jumping around, in obvious pain, and eventually pulls off his batting glove to show the blood that’s dripping off of his fingers. How is the play called? The home plate umpire calls it a foul ball, and sends the runners back to their bases. Wow. A) Matos was obviously pulling his bat back to get out of the way of the pitch, but there’s not much you can do about a 90+ mph fastball coming at your chest. B) His fingers are dripping with blood, an OBVIOUS sign that there was contact with them before the bat.
THIS JUST IN: Matos has been diagnosed with a broken ring finger, out for 6-8 weeks. That must have been one nasty foul ball… 
Nice call, ump.
NEWS FLASH: Minnesota has just hit back-to-back homers in the top of the 10th to go ahead 6-4. It looks like it takes 2 blown calls to hand them the game.
After Matos had to leave the game, Geronimo Gil came in to finish the at bat. Geronimo laid down a bunt right back to the pitcher, who was able to get the runner at third for the first out. Then, Jay Gibbons and Brian Roberts each popped out to end the inning.
Situation #2: Though there was no direct run result tied to this call, all blown calls have an effect on the game. That’s my bitter opinion. 
There are two outs, in the top of the ninth, with a runner on second (from a disputed balk call). There are two strikes on the batter, and Todd Williams throws a sinker that is swung at, but missed. The ball gets away from Geronimo a little, so he quickly picks it up and begins to throw the ball down to the first baseman for the third out. Meanwhile, the batter starts to run to first, since he knows he didn’t touch the ball. But before the runner gets very far, or Geronimo even throws the ball, the umpire signals for a foul ball. How many signs do you need to help you realize that it was the third strike? Aaargh.
Well, I’m pretty disappointed in my team now, especially since it appears as though they’re going to lose this one, after being ahead most of the game. Well, you still can’t win them all.
May 18th, 2005 at 10:25 pm
That’s probably the main point. If they score a bunch of runs, it makes it a lot more difficult for the opposing team to have a chance at coming back (or having the umps help them come back).
I agree that you can’t place all of the blame on the officiating or any single aspect or entity, but I really do feel like there’ve been quite a few more strange calls that have been made this season that go against the O’s.
A great example is the last game that Bedard pitched. Bedard has always been a stubborn one on the mound, and he will shake off the signal from the catcher until the catcher is ready to receive what Bedard wants to pitch. It was in the middle innings of the game, Sal Fasano was catching, and Sal was obviously getting frustrated with Bedard constantly shaking him off. With a batter awaiting the next pitch, Fasano finally just waved his hand at Bedard after being shaken off several times, and just sat there as if he was waiting for the batter to call time. Instead, the umpire called an automatic ball against Bedard for “taking too long to pitch.” The batter eventually walked, and I believe came in to score, though the Orioles still ended up winning the game. The really strange part is that the umpire never warned Bedard to hurry things up! Whomever was calling the game that evening on CSN remarked that they had never seen a call like that before in a game.
I’m probably just a bitter fan,
but there really seems to be a lot of strange going-ons with Orioles games this year…
May 12th, 2005 at 9:00 am
I feel like there have been a lot of crappy calls against the O’s also, however, in the Wednesday Baltimore Sun they said that the hand is considered part of the bat, and therefore it should be a foul ball. Although I do agree that he was attempting to get out of the way.
In that same game, it seemed like there were a couple calls that went against the Twins also. The first was Melvin Mora’s nice play on a chopper that he barehanded and threw to first. It appeared on replays to be a tie but the Orioles got the call. The second was Tejada fielding a grounder up the middle and stepping on second before firing to first for a double play. The guy at second looked like he may have gotten his foot on the bag the same time as Miggy.
I’m most upset with Gil not being able to sacrifice the runners over and the Orioles subsequently being unable to score. Gil doesn’t seem like a good hitter to me. He looks like he stands so damn far away from the plate! Doesn’t anyone watch film of the game and tell him that there’s no way he’s going to hit an outside pitch?
I do still agree that the Orioles have gotten shafted quite a bit lately on calls. Hopefully they can start scoring runs like they were earlier this year so that games aren’t close enough for the umps to affect the outcome.