Red Sox playoff push consistently getting stifled by the Ump Show

When you look at the final score of the Boston Red Sox' 8-4 loss to the Houston Astros on Friday night, you might think that it's hard to blame anyone other than Alex Cora's bullpen, a group that gave up seven runs in the final three innings of play at Fenway Park. And to be sure, they deserve plenty of blame for a bad night at the office. However, the umpires, specifically home plate umpire Mark Carlson, deserve plenty of blame too.

Now, to be sure, the totality of Carlson's performance according to Umpire Scorecards was not actually that bad. He was 97% accurate with his ball-strike calls (above the season average) and was at the average 94% mark with consistency for the night.

However, the game still came out +0.38 runs in favor of the visiting Astros. And there are two calls that stand out as the most egregious -- in fact, even more so given how solid Carlson was outside of those moments.

The bottom of the seventh inning, after a Lucas Sims blowup gave the Astros a 5-3 lead after trailing 3-1 entering the top of that frame, was Carlson's disasterclass. With Rob Refsnyder at the dish, Carlson first called a clear ball well outside the plate, making what should've been a 3-1 count with one out and runners on the corners a 2-2 count in favor of the pitcher. Refsnyder then struck out.

Enmanuel Valdez was the very next batter with two outs and two runners still on. In a 1-1 count, the pitch was clearly well above the zone but Carlson wrung it up as a strike. That led to another out and a Red Sox rally being stifled before it began in the end. Those two missed strike calls came at the worst moment, were among the worst of the game, and may have killed any momentum Boston was trying to garner.

Red Sox are among baseball's biggest victims in the Ump Show

Again, the Red Sox lost by four runs and we don't know how those at-bats would've ended up if not for these calls. What can be said definitively, however, is that they dramatically changed those at-bats for Refsnyder and Valdez.

This has been a maddening refrain for the Red Sox this season, too, and the numbers absolutely back that up. According to Ump Scorecards, the Red Sox have a -12.99 totFav on the season, a metric measuring how umps have favored them with calls this season and a negative number indicating favor being given to the opponent. That is the second-worst mark in MLB this season and makes Boston one of just three teams with a totFav below -10.00.

What makes that even more frustrating is that three key contenders for the Red Sox to track all rank drastically better in this metric than Boston. The Minnesota Twins have just a -6.37 totFav, the Kansas City Royals are nearly even at -1.22 and the rival New York Yankees have gotten the second-most favorable treatment from umps this season by the numbers at a ridiculous +19.30 totFav.

So it's not just your bias, Red Sox fans, if you think the umpire have been screwing over this team consistently this season. The numbers back it up and it truly makes the team's success in the playoff hunt all the more remarkable. But for this team to fight back to take hold of a wild card spot or even, in a pipe dream, the AL East, Boston has to keep that up. Because the Ump Show clearly loves the Sox, which is the absolute worst hurdle to have to jump over.