Paul Emmel called home plate in yesterday's O's/Twins game at the yard. As I sat in the Warehouse Bar prior to the game, I figured that it would probably be a fairly wide strike zone seeing that it was a brutally hot and humid day in Baltimore. I suppose I was right about one thing...it was brutally hot and humid at the yard. We al remember John Cougar Mellencamp's The Authority Song; I fight authority, authority always wins. I have to wonder if Emmel and this umpiring crew kept that Ty Wiggington incident with Gary Darling in the backs of their minds for the rest of the series. With that said, you don't lose 10-4 and blame the umpire. I'm the first one to say that most umpires and refs in sports are fair-minded. That's the key to being a good official.
In the case of baseball, you want the strike zone to be the same for both teams. In the first three innings of yesterdays game, I had some questions about that. Jake Arrieta wasn't wild, although he did hit a batter. However there appeared to be numerous at-bats where he got the ball over the plate, only to have Emmel call it a ball. On one pitch in particular, Arrieta seemed to stare in at Emmel as if to say, "...really?!" Ultimately, Arrieta didn't command is pitches in yesterday's game, and that's why he allowed a grand slam to Jason Kubel. Ultimately the competitive part of the game ended right there. Minnesota proved to be good at tacking on runs when they needed to, and while the O's did put across three in the bottom of the ninth, that doesn't do much when you've given up ten.
Having said that, I was glad to see Jim Thome (who should be a first ballot hall of famer in my opinion) play yesterday. In all my years as a baseball fan, I don't think I ever got to see him play in person. I didn't appreciate him homering against the O's of course, but I'm glad to say that I got to see him play. Similarly, I was happy to see Tim Wakefield pitch when Boston was in town earlier in the season, as he'll be another first ballot member of the hall.
With regard to yesterday's game, we also have to keep in mind that the O's played with a lineup that was extremely abnormal. Adam Jones got the day off, as did Brian Roberts (althought that should almost be a return to normalcy for the Orioles). Starting tonight in Toronto, I would assume that we'll see the normal lineup that we envisioned at the beginning of the season. When the rains came in the seventh inning yesterday, the game was delayed by about an hour and five minutes. As I said, the O's put across three runs in the ninth inning yesterday; so is it possible that the tempest in the inner harbor (which was worthy of an ark) washed away the evils of this season to this point? There's only one way to find out...the O's play the Blue Jays this evening.
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