Egregious missed call costs the Orioles a series win in Toronto

At the moment Shane Baz threw the first pitch in the bottom of the sixth during the Orioles Sunday series finale against the Blue Jays in Toronto, it felt as though the Orioles were going to cruise to an easy win and sound series victory. They had a 4-0 lead after chasing the Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman in the fifth inning, and Baz had only needed 60 pitches to get through the first five frames and looked as though he was going to ease through seven or eight innings. It turned out the umpires had other ideas.

A homer, a groundout, a double, and an error later, there were runners on the corners with one out. The Blue Jays backup catcher, Brandon Valenzuela, hit a soft grounder to the right side of the second-base bag, which was fielded by shortstop Gunnar Henderson, who was shifted towards the middle. Henderson snagged the ball, and his momentum carried him down the baseline towards Ernie Clement, who was charging towards second base.

Henderson clearly extended his arms towards Clement, and Clement responded by taking a near-90-degree turn towards right field and out of the base path. Henderson assumed that Clement would be called out of the basepaths as he should have been carried on with the play and fired to first to get what should have been the third out of the inning, preserving the 4-1 Orioles lead.

First baseman Pete Alonso celebrated getting out of the inning, pitcher Shane Baz took off towards the dugout, and then everyone realized around the same time that Clement had been called safe. The entire infield and the dugout erupted. Baz was incensed, and Alonso was as outwardly upset as he's been since putting on an Orioles uniform. The infielders huddled around the umpire Nic Lentz, who had made the mistake, demanding an explanation, and were soon joined by their manager Craig Albernaz as well as crew chief Hunter Wendelstedt.

The players and Albernaz argued, but there was nothing to be done. The call was made and was not reviewable. Clement was safe, and no amount of arguing could reverse that.

Baz returned to the mound visibly upset, and things unraveled from there. He gave up a single and a double to the next two batters to tie the game before being removed for Yennier Cano. As he left the game, he tried to make eye contact with Lentz to let him know one last time that he had made a mistake. Lentz diffidently tried to avoid Baz's gaze, so Baz had to settle for just yelling in his direction.

The Blue Jays pushed across the winning run a batter later and went on to win 6-4. Taking the series and a one-game lead in the wild card race over the Orioles.

The umpire's post-game attitude about the call was as egregious as the call itself

The post-game is where this becomes truly controversial and goes from a simple mistake to something much worse. Wendlestedt tried to defend his crew's decisions by lying. He told the media two different versions of the story. Neither of which lined up with what Lentz told Henderson and Albernaz on the field.

According to Wendelstedt, Clement was vacating the area to let Henderson field the ball. This is such an aggressive lie that it makes you wonder if Wendlestedt knows that the games are recorded on camera. Any replay of the play shows clearly that Henderson fielded the ball a good 40-50 feet from where Clement was running. Nothing about what happened on that play could be described as Clement vacating an area so that Henderson could field the ball. That is a false statement.

The other thing that Wendlested told the media was that it was "gentlemanly of Clement" to "get out of the way to allow the fielder to make the play at first base". Within this statement, Wendlstedt contradicts his other version of the story, where Clement was vacating the area to allow Henderson to field, and it also states out loud what Clement did wrong. He "got out of the way" when it comes to base running, which is also known as giving yourself up, and that means that you should be called out.

Wendelstedt also added some very unnecessary commentary on the play. Describing what Clement did as "gentlemanly" is very weird, and the other thing he said was that Henderson just threw up a “Hail Mary” and “hoped” they would call Clement out. This kind of editorializing, the play where he makes it seem like the Blue Jays players were being nice and considerate and the Orioles players were being sloppy and entitled, can only be described as strange. It's hard to interpret this behavior as anything other than a grown man who got yelled at a little bit, trying to throw around an attitude and troll the Orioles.

This kind of dishonesty is unbecoming of an MLB umpire. They are supposed to be trusted judges and executors of baseball rules, and to see someone as experienced as Wendlestedt refuse to engage with what actually happened on the field and instead try to create a revisionist history where  his crew called the game perfectly and is not at fault. He, of course, expects that because he is the big bad decision maker on the baseball field, everyone just has to accept his version of events, even if his version is divorced from reality. It's embarrassing and unprofessional, and if the umpires' union had any shame, they would discipline this kind of bald-faced lying to the media.

Worse still, Wendlstedt's version of events does not line up with what Lentz told the players on the field, which was that before Henderson fielded the ball, Clement moved to the side and established the basepath far to the right. This, of course, is also incorrect. Any replay of the play will show that when Henderson fielded the ball, Clement was standing directly in front of him, and it wasn't until Henderson took multiple steps towards him that he jutted out toward right field.

With Lentz, it's hard to say if he was lying to cover for his mistake or if he just actually thinks that's what happened. Based on what Wendelstedt did in his press availability, it seems like lying might be culturally accepted by this crew, but based on Lentz's accuracy score behind the plate in his most recent game calling balls and strikes, it's hard to argue that he's not just a bad umpire.

There is, of course, going to be no repercussion for this umpire crew, and the result of the game will stand. All the Orioles can do is hope that they don't run into this crew of liars and morons for the rest of the season.

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