Bad Officiating Quashes Perfection
Wednesday night a feat once rare in professional baseball almost became a commonality. Prior to this year MLB betting based on the possibility of a perfect game, had perhaps the slimmest odds in all of sports. However in the span of five weeks, the odds have increased as two of a possible three pitchers have accomplished the biggest rarity in all of baseball. On May 14th, Dallas Braden of the Oakland Athletics tossed the 19th perfect game in league history against the powerhouse Tampa Bay Rays. Almost two weeks later on May 29th, pitching phenom Roy Halladay became the 20th pitcher in league history to record a perfect game. Finally four days later, last night, on Wednesday June 2nd, Armando Galarraga of the Detroit Tigers almost became the third pitcher this season to record a perfect game.
However, with two out in the bottom of the ninth, a routine grounder was hit to first baseman Miguel Cabrera, Galarraga, raced down to first to cover for Cabrera who threw the ball to Galarraga recording the out. Or so we thought, fans betting online for the Tigers and Indians game could not have predicted what would happen next, as although Galarraga had clearly beat out the Indians player to first base and recorded the out, veteran umpire Jim Joyce called the Indians player safe. The result was the young Galarraga losing his perfect game bid to what was ruled as an infield single. Galarraga will go down as the player to get the closest to a perfect game, recording 26 of a possible 27 outs before giving up a hit, on perhaps the most controversial call in sports history.
Joyce's error on the play is not the first bad officiating of the year, as various umpires have been making headlines all season. As recently as Tuesday, another umpire was in the spotlight, as Angel Hernandez, the home plate umpire in the Blue Jays versus Tampa Bay Rays game made a few questionable calls. First he refused to grant a time out to Rays designated hitter Carlos Pena resulting in a strike out, where Pena was unprepared for the at bat. Then later in the same inning he shortened the strike zone for Jays closer Kevin Gregg resulting in a four run ninth inning come from behind victory for the Rays.
For Tiger pitcher Galarraga, the missed out is surely disappointing, however Galarraga is a good enough pitcher that he has plenty to build upon after this experience. Tiger's fans betting on another perfect game for the young Galarraga have reason to feel confident as such a strong outing will not go lost on the young pitcher.