There aren’t many positives to take from the Red Sox’ embarrassing loss to the Yankees Sunday night. But at least Joe West may never stand behind home plate at Fenway Park again.
West is entering the final stretch of his long career and reminded everybody why he’s been one of the most polarizing umpires in baseball for decades. Country Joe seemingly always inserts himself into the middle of the game. Sometimes it’s needlessly ejecting players; sometimes it’s getting into verbal altercations with managers and coaches. On Sunday, it was brutal umpiring.
One of his mistakes may have helped change the course of the Red Sox’ season.
Faced with two on and one out in the top of the 8th, Adam Ottavino was digging in against Aaron Judge. It was a maddening at-bat that got extended when Bobby Dalbec misplayed a routine foul pop-up. But just a couple of pitches later, it looked like Ottavino retired the fearsome slugger.
Judge swung right through a fastball, tipping the ball into Christian Vazquez’s mitt. Strike three, right?
Not with West behind the plate. He said Vazquez dropped the ball, even though it’s clear he lost it on the transfer.
Joe West called this a foul ball instead of a foul-tip third strike that was dropped on the transfer.
— Billy Heyen (@BillyHeyen) September 27, 2021
Not good.pic.twitter.com/iyFl2puSVJ
One pitch later, Judge banged a double to center field, giving the Yankees the one-run lead. Giancarlo Stanton was the next batter and homered over the Green Monster for the second straight night.
The Bronx Bombers never looked back.
Maybe Stanton would’ve hammered Ottavino’s offering anyway, rendering West’s blown call irrelevant. But momentum does exist in sports. Ottavino was seemingly flustered following Judge’s double, perhaps setting the stage for a hanging slider that Stanton knocked all the way to Landsdowne Street.
Both sides fell victim to West’s misses behind the plate, but the Red Sox suffered worse. His called third strike on Kike Hernandez in the bottom of the seventh was brutal.
West is the man who called Dave Roberts “safe,” so he’ll always have a place in Red Sox history. And after Sunday’s performance, it’s clear that’s the best place to leave him.
The present-day Joe West helped cost the Red Sox their biggest game of the season.
