DAMN that was a tough loss to swallow tonight!!! Pads lose to Cards 4-3 in a game filled with some really good Padres baseball, a couple of not so good moments of Padres baseball, and some absolutely HORRIBLE officiating by the umpiring crew, most notably Bob Davidson. First the good. For the third consecutive outing Stults pitched a really nice game tonight. He surrendered a 2-run HR in the 2nd, but really buckled down after that going 7 innings allowing only those 2. He really used the arm side effectively and got sharper as the game went on. More good was some solid defense (including an Amarista Coleman Star worthy diving play), and the Friars offense coming from behind against Lackey in the 6th using a combination of patient at bats working two BBs, some good hitting on Medicas 2B, and some flat out hustle on Lirianos infield single to score the second run of the inning with 2 outs to tie the game 2-2. There were a couple of gaffes though that proved to be factors including Amaristas running into an out at 3rd on a ground ball in front of him in the 3rd, but more costly was the ineffectiveness of Torres in the 8th. He allowed a leadoff single, which was controversial because home plate umpire Bob Davidson appeared to have called the batter out on the previous pitch which was a 2-strike foul tip seemingly caught by Grandal before the ball hit the ground…and Davidson clearly signaled with his hands foul-tip, caught strike three, yer out. Or so it seemed until the batter appeared to point at the ground suggesting the ball had touched it before Grandals catch, and Davidson without a hesitation appeared to agree and reversed the call….what?!? No explanation, no conference with the other umps, just a Never mind, its not strike three, its a foul ball instead, so lets play Buddy of course argued the reversal, but Davidson stood his ground…whatever it inexplicably could have been (bad mechanics maybe?). That was not Davidsons lowest moment of the game, however - that was yet to come. The next pitch was the hit that started the rally. Torres threw fuel on the fire though by walking the next lefty batter, and then allowed a 1B to the following lefty hitter as well to load the bases with 0 outs. Vincent was then called in to pull off yet another Houdini trick to work out the bases juiced jam, but allowed a 2B plating the eventual game winning runs. The Friars didnt give up though, in fact they staged an impressive rally against Cards closer Rosenthal that started with a Grandal 1B. Amarista then 1Bd also, and Nelson BBd to load the bags with 1-out. The stage was now set for Davidsons ultimate series of F-ups. Goebbert came off the bench and singled to left scoring Grandal, and Amarista was waved home as well. The throw home was well up the 3rd base line, and Pierzinski went into the base path to catch the ball (questionable under MLBs new pathetic Posey rule but not called by Davidson…gray area so that one you have to give a pass for), forcing Alexi to go out of the line to avoid the tag, which he appeared to do except Davidson half heartily signaled him out on the seemingly phantom tag (screw-up #1). Then when Ninja went for the back door home plate tag and Pierzinski knowing he missed the initial tag went after him, Davidson stood there like a zombie, bewildered at what was going on until it finally dawned on him that he had obviously blown the phantom tag call, so the play must still be going on. Instead of then reacting to position himself for the next tag attempt at the plate (screw-up #2), he continued to stand there bewildered and watched from a bad position as Ninja safely got his hand in on the plate before Pierzinskis second missed tag attempt of the play, yet the befuddled Davidson again called Alexi out for his coup de grace 3rd screw-up of the play that had it been called correctly would have tied the game for the Pads, with the go ahead run at 3rd and 1-out. Honestly the most troubling part of the entire play was how absolutely overwhelmed Davidson appeared to be throughout it. I rarely complain about umpiring or calls, and in fact believe that umpiring mistakes are part of the character of the game, and I also believe that if you do something wrong in the game to make it close then you are responsible for not taking control of the game yourself, and allowing the umpires to then be a factor. I can live with honest mistakes that are made. What is inexcusable in my opinion though are mental mistakes, lazy mistakes, ego mistakes, and in this case being completely overmatched by the situation mistakes which suggest that maybe its time to hang up the mask. Im not even going to get started on Grand Central Confusion in new York that once again was incapable of truly getting it right even after over 4 minutes of replay and review. Tough, tough pill to swallow tonight, in what was all said an done an exciting, and overall well plaid, and hard played game by the Pads. Try it again tomorrow with Ross on the mound against Lynn….GEEZ that was a tough one tonight!!!!
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 04:30:35 +0000
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