Umpire Jerry Meals hands the Orioles a win via a horrific call
This is why the Orioles just aren't going to go away. With one out and one-run lead in the ninth inning, Baltimore's vaunted bullpen looked perfectly ready to blow the save against the Yankees. Mark Teixeira hit a groundball to short, which J.J. Hardy fielded and threw to second to put out Nick Swisher only to have the relay to first base arrive too late, thus allowing the tying run to score from third... or at least that is how it looked to everyone but umpire Jerry Meals.
This is what the viewers saw on their TV at home (courtesy of Jimmy Traina):
That sure looks like Mark Teixeira is safe by a pretty good margin. Meals, however, thought otherwise and declared him out thus preventing the tying run from scoring and ending the game as a 5-4 victory for Baltimore. Now, maybe Meals was just punishing Teixeira for stupidly sliding into first base, which we all know actually slows you down (I guess Teixeira was not a physics major at Georgia Tech), or maybe Meals just isn't a very good umpire as we saw last July during the epic Pirates-Braves 19-inning marathon that was decided when Meals blew a the call on a tag out play at home. Or maybe the Orioles just have a giant horseshoe up their collective butt.
Either way, Meals' obvious error is now looming as a major factor in both the AL East division title race (in which the YOLOrioles and Yankees are now once again tied) and in the increasingly tight and convoluted AL Wild Card race. Thanks, Jerry. And thanks Bud Selig for continuing to avoid expanding instant replay.
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Garrett wilson? How stupid are you? He was playing with a leg injured. Running was obviously going to give him pain. Probably the reason why he did that instead of run through it.
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@Yankees123098 Yeah, that's it. He slid and knowingly risked going into the bag slower on the most important play of the game because his leg couldn't handle that one extra stride and not because he succumbed to the temptation of misguided hustle like so many other players before him have. You nailed it.
Its about time the Orioles caught a break! More than one umpire has hosed us on plays all year!!! Not only will you clowns get run out of Baltimore later today in 2nd place, but if there is a God, one of your superstars will catch a fastball in the ear as payback for CC Slob-athia breaking Nick Markakis' thumb!!!
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@hkgrif Catch a break? The Orioles are in first place in the AL East in mid-September despite having a -19 run differential. I think they've caught their fair share.
