MLB Admits to Another Blown Call in Angels-Astros Game

Major League Baseball is under some serious scrutiny after a blown home run call in the Oakland Athletics game earlier this week, but the travesty has apparently continued and it’s plaguing the AL West it seems. Last night umpires made another controversial call when they allowed a double switch at pitcher for the Houston Astros despite the fact that one of the pitchers had yet to face a batter.

In case you didn’t know, a pitcher has throw at least one pitch to a batter before being replaced unless it’s medically necessary for him to be removed from the game before facing a batter. That wasn’t the case last night when rookie skipper Bo Porter brought in lefty Wesley Wright to face Angels outfielder J.B. Shuck. However before Shuck was delivered an official pitch, Angels manager Mike Scioscia brought in a pinch hitter to offset the pitching matchup which brought the Astros skipper back out to make a pitching change.

Long story short, you can’t do that.

The worst part of the story isn’t that Porter switched pitchers the way he did, that’s just embarrassing for him. The travesty is that the umpires allowed this, despite getting a firm talking to from Scioscia.

The timing of this error couldn’t be any worse for baseball as it comes on the heels of an equally terrible and obvious call in the A’s game. This isn’t some AL West conspiracy, rather it seems it’s a systematic breakdown of the governing of baseball. Fresh off the steroids era, baseball is needing to get back to the way it was, and while human error is part of the game, stupidity is not.