Ump screws over Red Sox and Nick Pivetta with brutal call (Video)

Boston Red Sox pitcher Nick Pivetta was halfway off the mound when he received a sad dose of reality courtesy of home plate umpire Bill Miller.

Pivetta and the Sox are taking on the Seattle Mariners in a battle of surprising first-place teams. No one assumed Boston would be leading the AL East at this juncture, even if it’s early in the season. Alex Cora’s impact on the Sox cannot be understated, and his return was necessary for a Boston team with more talent than meets the eye.

On what he thought was the final pitch of the third inning, Pivetta was halfway to the dugout before realizing that Miller was in fact not giving him what looked to be a rather obvious strike call.

Nick Pivetta and Boston Red Sox played it cool on bad call

The Mariners didn’t score in the third inning, thankfully, as a result of such an egregious miss from Miller. However, this won’t help the argument against the ‘human element’, and in favor of an electronic strike zone. Umpires could very well be ‘bullied’ out from behind home plate, especially with such obvious misses like this one.

Sure, it was a breaking ball high in the zone, but such is the issue with the strike zone in the first place. Miller’s eyes deceived him in this case.