John Farrell and David Ortiz absolutely lost it over two bad calls

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Major League Baseball umpires try their best to officiate what can be a pretty complicated game at times, and for the most part, they do a pretty steady job at making sure the game goes well. However, mistakes are bound to be made since these are humans that we’re talking about, and sometimes that can end up being the difference between a win and a loss for teams on certain nights. That was the case on Friday night, which is when the home plate umpire for the Yankees-Red Sox game probably cost the Red Sox at least another inning of play.

In the top of the ninth with David Ortiz at bat, Andrew Miller was behind on a 3-1 count with the bases loaded and threw a pitch that Ortiz figured was a ball. Instead, it was called a strike and this prompted Boston manager John Farrell to leave the dugout and argue the call so that Ortiz wouldn’t get ejected. He succeeded in falling on the sword for Ortiz, but Ortiz would still end up getting the hook after the next pitch. That’s because that particular pitch was even lower than the previous, but it was still called strike three. Big Papi threw a Big Fit and got ejected, and then Hanley Ramirez struck out swinging to end the game 3-2 in favor of the Yankees.

The final two called strikes on Ortiz definitely didn’t pass the eye test, and they barely passed the graphical test (via Brooks Baseball). It was the culmination of what had been a rough night for home plate umpire Ron Kulpa, and it was also proof that even with all of the attempts to optimize the rules and replay, the “human element” is still alive and well in baseball umpiring. Sure, both Farrell and Ortiz could’ve done a better job of containing their emotions, but when it comes to a big-time ninth-inning at-bat in the most famous rivalry in baseball being decided by some questionable calls, do you really blame them for losing it like they did? At least there’s always the next game -- even for the umps.