Kevin_Holden's Blog

Did you see what happened at the Marlins-Diamondbacks game in Miami Sunday? I can honestly say it was something I've never seen before, and I've seen a lot of baseball.

In the 4th inning, the Diamondbacks' Orlando Hudson came to home plate to bat against Marlins pitcher Scott Olsen. Hudson took a strike, then a ball, then swung and missed, then took ball two outside.

The count is 2 balls, 2 strikes. So far, nothing unusual. Hudson fouled a pitch off, took ball three, then another foul ball.

3 balls, 2 strikes. Again, not exactly noteworthy. But what happened next was enough to make baseball fanatics' heads spin.

Hudson took a pitch low. It was called a ball. Now, make all the jokes you want about the educational system in Georgia, but I've always heard that 3+1 is 4, and in baseball, 4 balls has equalled a walk for, say, the last 110 years or so.

But apparently, in this one case, for one second, all logic in the universe was suspended. Home plate umpire Brian Runge (in his first game back after a suspension) claimed the count was still 3-2, over the protests of Diamondbacks players and manager Bob Melvin. Runge ordered Hudson to step back into the batter's box for what was essentially a '4-2 pitch'.

Hudson popped up to center field for an out. And the Marlins ended up winning the game... by one run. It's distinctly possible that Runge's blown call altered the outcome of this game.

This one was a big talker in the newsroom Sunday night. Why didn't Runge consult the other umpires? How could something as simple as counting to four suddenly become an issue? In Runge's defense, umpires call hundreds of games involving many thousands of hitters in the course of a season, and something's bound to go wrong once. But this is a colossal mistake, and one that's on tape forever.

Should anything happen to Runge over this incident? Should there be some sort of computerized 'check' for umpire mistakes? Or is this just another side-effect of the simple, pastoral appeal of baseball's timeless system of human umpiring?

Blog it here.