Edwin Diaz's six-ball strikeout leaves Angels begging for robot umps all the way to clubhouse

It's hard to argue with Carlos Mendoza's strategy to secure a New York Mets win by sending Edwin Diaz out in the eighth inning with a runner on first in a 6-3 game. In the thick of the NL East race, the Mets can't afford to give games away late, especially against a beatable team like the Angels. However, without the help of umpire Erich Bacchus, Diaz and the Mets might not have been so lucky as to get out of there with a win. Just ask the Angels coaching staff, who are certainly begging for ABS and robot umps now, if they weren't already.

In the top of the eighth, Diaz came on and immediately showed a bit of wild command on the day. Despite getting Travis d'Arnaud into a two-strike count, he couldn't find his spot to put him away and actually ended up hitting the Angels catcher with the seventh pitch of the bat. That brought Luis Rengifo to the plate, and the command didn't get any better.

Only, it didn't matter because Bacchus was about as effective as an umbrella from a mai tai in a monsoon behind home plate.

Diaz proceeded to throw six straight pitches outside the zone for the right-handed Rengifo. And not once during the at-bat did the Angels hitter bite. Yet, after three called strikes, the Mets closer got the backwards K and the Mets were out of the jam.

Didn't see a single strike and still struck out. Are the people saying they love the human element of baseball and umpiring actually serious when things like this are happening every day?

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Angels manager ejected after brutal umpiring helps Mets out of a jam

Shocking absolutely no one, Angels interim manager Ray Montgomery was livid after strike three was called, and promptly got tossed from the action.

He wasn't the only Angels coach who had a message to send the umpires, though, another was ejected later, and he had a one-fingered bit of advice to offer Bacchus behind the dish.

What's crazy is that the Angels were only further validated for being apoplectic with the umpiring on Wednesday afternoon considering that Diaz immediately came out for the ninth inning and remained erratic, hitting veteran Chris Taylor in the head with a pitch.

But Diaz ultimately recovered from that, got three outs on the next three batters, and secured the Mets win.

To be clear, there's no guarantee that anything would've changed had Rengifo been awarded the walk that he earned 1.5 times during the at-bat where he struck out. However, it's baffling that umps have seemingly gotten worse this season when their roles in the game are seemingly on thinner ice than ever before. The automatic ball-strike system (ABS) was tested out in the All-Star Game and seems like it will arrive in the majors sooner rather than later.

If it means being able to eliminate such egregious mistakes, or at least being able to correct them with challenges in real time, I'm sure the Angels are pining for it on Wednesday afternoon. But fans as a whole should look forward to it as well. The Mets benefitted from it in this game, but they've been and will continue to be burned by it in the future as well. No one is safe until the robot umps come to save us.