Miami Marlins reliever Richard Bleier had a tough night last night at Citi Field.
The Marlins left-hander had a runner on first base in Jeff McNeil with Pete Alonso at the plate.
On the first pitch of the at-bat, the first base umpire called a balk on Bleier.
It didn’t appear as if Bleier had actually balked, given that he was in the middle of throwing a pitch.
So, Bleier had some words with the umpire.
But that wasn’t the end of it.
After McNeil was awarded second base, it happened again, with it once again not appearing as if Bleier had actually balked.
It then happened a third time, which allowed McNeil to score and make it a 6-4 game.
After the third one, manager Don Mattingly popped out of the dugout to argue before being tossed.
Umpires Single Out Bleier
This is an interesting sequence of events.
Not once did it appear that Bleier had actually balked.
He just looked to be in the middle of his delivery.
What the umpires saw in that is up for interpretation.
But by just looking at it, it doesn’t appear that Bleier had even balked, at least not by the naked eye.
It’s easy to sympathize with Bleier here.
He was just trying to do his job, but the umpires wouldn’t leave him alone, making this yet another sad case of umpires overstepping their bounds and letting their authority go to their heads, forgetting that when fans come to games, they aren’t there to watch the umpires make calls.
Unfortunately, Bleier happened to be the unlucky one last night that the umpires decided to pick on.
None of this needed to happen, but the umpires were once again overstepping their bounds.
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