Did John Hirschbeck’s umpiring lose the last two games for the Blue Jays? No, it didn’t. However, blown calls that Hirschbeck made cost us a run in two consecutive games that the Jays subsequently lost by one run and there is no argument around that.
The Devil Rays are the worst team in the American League. Perhaps the Royals are worse, but I challenge anyone to construct an argument that any other AL team has less talent on their 25-man roster than these two clubs right now. The Devil Rays had won nine road games in three and a half months and then they waltzed into the Rogers Centre and promptly took three of four from the Jays. This was only the second game they had won on a Sunday all season. No serious contending team could allow that to happen to them, right?
However, from June 20-23 the New York Yankees allowed the Devil Rays to do the exact same thing. Furthermore, if Lou Pinella possessed a quick hook to the bullpen and a willingness not to throw Travis Harper to the lions the Devil Rays might have swept the series. The Yankees are not the old Yankees, but they are a contending team and anyone who thinks otherwise needs to take a good look at the AL East standings. The Yankees currently sit a half-game back of first place in the AL East, which is proof that losing three of four to Tampa does not symbolise the end of a team’s season.
Yes, the Jays cost themselves a nice opportunity to move within 3.5 games of the division-leading Red Sox. However, Toronto is only 5.5 games back of Boston with two and a half months still left in the season. They also have 7 games remaining against Boston, 13 against the Yankees and 9 versus the Orioles. So, there are plenty of opportunities to gain ground on their AL East rivals.
Finally, as has been reported often by uglyone and others, the Jays have a very good run differential. It currently sits at +47, which is second in the AL East, just behind Boston’s. The Jays are unfortunately losing close games and winning blowouts, and given the strength of their bullpen this is something that seems almost certainly to be a result of fluke. Just look to this most recent series, where the Jays 20 runs and the Devil Rays scored 20 runs, yet the Rays won three times as many games.
The Jays lost the two one-run games in the series and there are a variety of factors that contributed to the loss. However, there was one factor that the Jays could not control or foresee and which appeared to play a direct role in the altering the outcome of both games. That factor was John Hirschbeck.
In Saturday’s game Hirschbeck was the first base umpire. In the fourth inning Joey Gathright tried to bunt for a base hit, as he so often does. Josh Towers got off the mound quickly and fielded the bunt. With Gathright right in front of him and a toss somewhat difficult, Towers did the easiest thing and tagged Gathright, needing to dive to apply the tag. However, Hirschbeck was running to position himself for a close play at the base, as he is supposed to do, and could not see Towers swipe at Gathright’s back. Hirschbeck signalled that Gathright was safe and Towers had missed the tag and the call stood, despite fierce protest from Towers and an argument from John Gibbons. The next batter was Carl Crawford, and he homered to deep right-centre, plating himself and Gathright.
The most frustrating part of this call is that it looked like Towers made the tag to basically everyone in the park. Hirschbeck had a bad angle to view the play and despite this he refused to ask for help, instead decisively calling Gathright safe. Crawford homered, Gathright scored and the Jays ended up losing by a run.
On Sunday Hirschbeck blew the call at home plate in Tampa’s 3-run 8th inning. On Toby Hall’s double Reed Johnson picked up the ball and threw it to Russ Adams who relayed the throw to catcher Gregg Zaun as Jonny Gomes headed towards home plate. Gomes slid in headfirst as Zaun caught the throw, tried to block the plate and apply the tag. The play was bang-bang in real life, although it looked, to me at least, that Zaun had tagged Gomes before he could touch the plate. It seemed unlikely that Gomes could have eluded Zaun’s leg that was blocking home and reached home plate before the tag was applied.
NFH’s photograph (posted in the Instant Replay thread) shows that Zaun clearly had the ball in his possession when Gomes was still several feet away from the plate. The photo shows Zaun with his leg firmly in front of home, and it’s hard to imagine how a headfirst slide could get around the leg before Zaun would be able sweep across and tag the runner. Furthermore, slow-motion replays on TSN show Zaun tagged Gomes before he tagged the plate.
John Hirschbeck blew both of these calls, and both of them undoubtedly cost the Jays a run. Additionally, as was pointed out in the Instant Replay thread, Hirschbeck appeared inconsistent with his strike zone throughout the game and failed to call possible third-strikes on both Lugo and Cantu in the ninth inning. It reeks of bad sportsmanship to blame the umpire for a loss when they are trying to do their best and when there are so many other factors that influence the outcome of a baseball game.
Nevertheless, Hirschbeck cost the Jays a run each game and there is no way around that fact and he apparently refused to ask for help on a play he didn’t see, for which there is no excuse. There is no telling what would have happened if neither Gathright nor Gomes had scored, but there is certainly a good chance the Jays would have won at least one of the two games.
There’s plenty of blame to go around for each loss and Jays fans can’t blame Hirschbeck alone. Hillenbrand’s pop out with the bases loaded in Saturday’s game was very costly, as was the Jays’ failure to score Hill from third with one out on Sunday. Towers’ inability to retire batters after getting two strikes on them was very costly on Saturday and there is little excuse for making Mark Hendrickson and Seth McClung look like above-average starters. Backup catchers like Adam Melhuse provide pinch-hit doubles to tie ballgames in ninth innings, while backup catchers like Ken Huckaby can often only strike out weakly when inserted into the game.
I’d write something clever or insightful or Magpie-length (or however close mortals can come), but there is little motivation after a series like this. Take what positives you can from the game, such as a strong outing by Pete Walker and defensive gems from Aaron Hill and particularly Reed Johnson, and move forwards. If the Jays want to let JP know they intend to stick around in the race for real they need to win five of the next six games. Losing a series to Seattle or Kansas City after this would be disastrous.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=2005071722353631