Fans Lose It When MLB Umpire Gives Player A Walk On Just Three Balls In Critical Moment Of Game

MLB Umpire Gives Player Walk On Three Balls In Critical Game Moment

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Major League Baseball umpires have not been helping their case this year against the league using robot umpires in the future.

Earlier this month we saw MLB home plate umpire Jim Wolf give Houston Astros’ slugger Yordan Alvarez four strikes in an at bat. Terrible to be sure, but at least it didn’t affect the outcome of the game (unless you had a wager on the pitcher’s strikeout prop).

Fast forward to Monday night in the top of the ninth inning of a tie game between the Angels and Mariners, and once again an ump show broke out.

With Los Angeles Angels reliever Aaron Loup on the mound and the Seattle Mariners’ Carlos Santana at bat, home plate umpire Laz Diaz gave a the first baseman a walk on just three balls.

Watch as Loup throws a ball with his first pitch, then a couple of called strikes to make the count 1-2. The fourth pitch of the at bat was then called a ball, making the count 2-2. Loup then throws another ball, the third of the at bat, and Diaz awards Santana first base with a walk.

The umpire awarding a walk on just three balls ended up being part of a four run inning

Unlike when umpire Jim Wolf gave Yordan Alvarez four strikes in his at bat, this time there were consequences.

Santana’s walk led to Dylan Moore pinch running for him. The next batter hit into a fielder’s choice where all the runners were safe and scored a run. Moore then scored on another fielder’s choice and an error where all the runners were safe. Then another run scored on a ground out, a batter was intentionally walked, and a fourth run in the inning was then scored on a single.

Would it have mattered if Santana had been forced to continue his at bat, rather than receiving a walk on three balls? Maybe, but we’ll never know for sure.

Regardless, fans were understandably upset over the ridiculous mistake.

As it turns out, he kind of did.

Following the game, home plate umpire Laz Diaz admitted, “Yeah. I messed that one up.”

He said that after the fourth pitch, Santana asked him if the count was 3-1 and Diaz told him “no it’s 2-2. Then I started thinking, maybe it is 3-1, because I forgot I called that first pitch a strike. There were so many pitches going on, I lost the count on that first pitch. I knew I called a strike on the steal, and that’s the only one I remembered. I couldn’t remember the one before that.”

Read that again…

“There were so many pitches going on, I lost the count on that first pitch. I knew I called a strike on the steal, and that’s the only one I remembered. I couldn’t remember the one before that.”

Just… wow.

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Before settling down at BroBible, Douglas Charles, a graduate of the University of Iowa (Go Hawks), owned and operated a wide assortment of websites. He is also one of the few White Sox fans out there and thinks Michael Jordan is, hands down, the GOAT.