Look, I’m the last person to complain about bad calls. I’m a firm believer that even with replay in place, a baseball team has to factor in lousy umpires, and be good enough to overcome them. And if Logan Verrett had been able to get out Tony Wolters, a .172 hitter coming into the game in the third inning, then the Mets might have won this game.
But here’s the problem: Logan Verrett did retire Tony Wolters. Got him swing a slider that one hopped the plate. Wolters didn’t even come close to tipping the ball. But home plate umpire Carlos Torres … and that should have been our first clue: a home plate umpire named Carlos F*cking Torres for God’s sake … ruled that Wolters tipped the ball. Terry Collins got ejected after that, and think about how much Collins has to try very hard to get ejected in his baseball life. It generally isn’t easy for him. But he did it. And of course, as if Adam Wainwright was trying his hand at script writing, ripped a two run double to right field. 3-1 turned into 5-1, and then after Lucas Duda couldn’t trap a runner 45 feet from third base, 5-1 became 7-1 thanks to Charlie Blackmon. 7-1 then became an early shower for Verrett.
Wanted, one home plate umpire for #Mets #Rockies game. Impostor back there who has no business being in the big leagues.
— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) May 15, 2016
The Mets made an attempt to come back as they scored three runs to make the final score respectable. But the Mets couldn’t get that next big hit to get them back to even. It shouldn’t have mattered. Maybe it did. Maybe Verrett makes it to the fourth and implodes there, forcing the Mets to come back from six down anyway. And perhaps the outcome is the same even if Torres could tell the difference between the sound of a baseball hitting a hard object and hitting soft dirt. But boy, we all would have liked to have found that out. And we would have if the home plate ump could do his job with just a touch more competency than a doorknob. Or Angel Hernandez. Or the doorknob that leads to Angel Hernandez’s palatial mansion that he paid for with the money he received in return for screwing up baseball games. Torres is checking the real estate listings for the same neighborhood tonight.
Plawecki: "Wolters comes back into the box and tells me, 'I didn't hit that ball,' He didn't have to tell me – I already knew."
— Mike Puma (@NYPost_Mets) May 15, 2016
We already knew when we found out the umpire’s name was Carlos Torres.
Today’s Hate List
- Carlos Torres
- The other Carlos Torres
- Alex Torres
- Alex Ochoa
- D.J. Lemahieu
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