The New York Mets lose the same game every season. Yes, I am serious. As Mets fans have pointed out, the team loses their 34th game of the season seemingly every year. Actually, you can remove seemingly – it's happened 15 years in a row. On Sunday, home plate umpire Jim Wolf made sure of it, as Pete Alonso had several questionable pitches go against him in the bottom of the eighth with runners on.
With the bases loaded, Alonso really should have known better than to take such close pitches. However, Wolf also...could have called any one of those a ball, specifically the eighth pitch of the at-bat.
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Mets and Pete Alonso have an argument that they got hosed
Wolf is a veteran and knows what he is doing, in general, but the close ball and strike calls are an argument in favor of ABS, if anything. Why risk a result in a one-run game when it's not necessary? We all love the human element of baseball. Mistakes happen all the time. However, both the Mets and Cardinals have a claim at this eighth pitch. There was no correct call to make by a human source, and that is part of the problem.
Alonso's questionable call wasn't the only decision which went against the Mets.
Yes, even Juan Soto gets bad calls.
Again, it doesn't help that the Mets have lost their 34th game of the season for half of my lifetime. It also doesn't help that Alonso, for some reason, opted to sit on the eighth pitch of the at-bat rather than at the very least extending his plate appearance.
But in a one-run affair, every at-bat is bound to be scrutinized. A walk would have tied the game for the Mets, and perhaps sent us to extra innings. Instead, New York's best attempt to tie was wasted, and one can argue Wolf took the bat out of Alonso's hands.