This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning.
MLB umps have been brutal all season and I’ve been hoping that things would get better as the season moved along but it feels like it is only getting worse.
In the past week we’ve seen a player demanding an apology from MLB for a really bad call and we’ve seen maybe the worst missed call by a home plate ump.
Things took another bad turn Tuesday night in Houston when Twins manager Rocco Baldelli was ejected for rightfully calling the umps out on their nonsense.
Here’s what happened: The Twins and Astros had a bench-clearing dustup in the fifth inning after Aaron Sanchez hit Jose Altuve with a pitch and at the end of it Baldelli stepped on the mound for a second and asked Sanchez “are you fine?” Baldelli then continued to the dugout and the game went on.
Moments later the Twins had their pitching coach make a mound visit and the umps ruled it was the second visit of the inning because of Baldelli’s brief conversation after the dustup and forced the Twins to make a pitching change.
Baldelli, who didn’t have a pitcher warming up, then lost it and was ejected:
Words were exchanged between Jose Altuve and Aaron Sanchez after Altuve was hit by a pitch
The coaches went out to calm Sanchez and the umpires ruled it a mound visit, forcing them to remove him from the game and Rocco Baldelli was HEATED pic.twitter.com/i0wzkI1WMX
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) August 24, 2022
The umps said after the game that they motioned to the press box after Baldelli’s brief conversation with Sanchez to record that a mound visit had taken place but they didn’t bother to tell the Twins that, which rightfully angered Baldelli:
“There’s people walking all over the place, getting settled back in after some type of altercation, and in the middle of it all I’m given a mound visit, and not being communicated with,” Baldelli said. “If someone walks over and says, ‘Hey, you might not agree with it, but we got together and decided to give you a mound visit because you stopped on the mound and looked like you talked to your pitcher.’ They didn’t know what I was talking about because there weren’t out there with me. Could they have been? Maybe, but they weren’t. We didn’t get any of that.”
"I really didn't like the lack of communication on a really unusual play."
Rocco Baldelli was ejected in the bottom of the 5th inning in the loss to the Astros. Hear Rocco's reaction to the ejection. #MNTwins pic.twitter.com/7OwSHytTV5
— Bally Sports North (@BallySportsNOR) August 24, 2022
This was another screw up by the umps, who failed to communicate with the Twins and definitely overreacted to a mound visit that wasn’t really a mound visit. Baldelli should be allowed a brief second to check in to see if his pitcher is OK after Altuve overreacted to being hit by a pitch. It’s not a big deal and it’s not really a mound visit. The umps should give some leeway there.
These guys need to get their stuff together and get it together pretty darn quickly.
Quick hits: Detroit slide absolutely destroying people… Little Leaguer’s awesome bat flip… Pujols’ sweet swing… And more.
– Here are the five best videos of people getting absolutely wrecked by this insane slide in Detroit.
– Nicaragua’s Luis Garcia had an epic bat flip after a 3-run bomb at the Little League World Series.
– This slo-mo video of Albert Pujols’ latest home run is so good.
– Did Justin Herbert throw some shade at Derek Carr here?
