Royals boned by worst ump call in recent memory in 6-2 loss to Red Sox

They say that only losers complain about officiating. I’ve never really bought that, because winners don’t complain about officiating because it doesn’t matter for them. Why would they complain?

And alright, fine, maybe it’s dumb, as a team barrelling towards 110 losses, to complain about officiating when what really matters is how Bobby Witt Jr. did (a double and a walk) and how MJ Melendez did (three hits) and how Cole Ragans pitched (like a man with his hair on fire, in a good way).

But I simply cannot go through this recap without mentioning one absolute bullshit call, one of the worst judgment calls I’ve ever made. In the ninth inning, Carlos Hernandez got a swing and a miss from Luis Urias, who very clearly attempted a swing. It was called a non-swing, Urias walked, and Pablo Reyes then hit a walkoff grand slam to end the game 6-2 in favor of the Red Sox.

Everyone thought it was a swing. The Royals and Red Sox started heading to their respective dugouts. Except, no, it was appealed and then called a no swing, which is not challengeable. Matt Quatraro got tossed from the game, his third this year, which is ridiculous because he was right.

It was such a bummer, too, because the game had been going pretty well and was a lot of fun. As I said earlier: Ragans was dealing! Ragans was magnificent in a way that Royals starters have rarely been, not just this year but in recent memory. He struck out 11 Red Sox batters and only gave up one earned run, the other unearned after a throwing error by Freddy Fermin.

Additionally, the Royals fought back with aplomb in the seventh inning. Garcia and Witt both notched two-out, run-scoring hits to tie the game. The bullpen held on until it didn’t.

And then…fart noises.

I didn’t really want this to be a complaint session about the umpires. But in every game, there’s a story, and the story here is that Vic Carapazza made an indefensible call in a key situation that swung the game in a totally different direction. Maybe the Royals lose, maybe they don’t. Doesn’t really matter. It’s extremely hard to win when umpires miss easy calls in such crucial situations as Carapazza did.

The second story is that, holy cow, Ragans was great. That the Royals were able to A) resuscitate Aroldis Chapman to his former glory and B) Identify Ragans as someone they wanted and someone whose pitch repertoire they could tweak is the biggest current argument that the front office has made for themselves.

The good news is that the Royals losing doesn’t impact much. Can you imagine if this was flipped and the Royals were the team that walked off the Red Sox after such a call? Whooo boy Boston may have rioted.

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