It was Dale Scott's day today
Not familiar with the name? Well, he doesn't play for either club. Instead, he was the home plate umpire, who routinely called ridiculous, awful strikes against the Red Sox all night long. Just take a look:
via brooksbaseball.net
That's 5 strikes called outside the zone in the last inning. It doesn't include a check-swing by Adrian Beltre that Scott called without the help of the first base umpire in spite of Beltre's pleas--and yes, on replay, Beltre did appear to hold up. That's just bad is what that is.
Credit Shaun Marcum for pitching well. Credit the Blue Jays defense, and in particular second baseman John McDonald for being in the right places and making some good plays. Credit Travis Snider for managing a clutch RBI single, and then somehow golfing a very low Knuckleball from Tim Wakefield into the bullpen for the deciding 2-run home run.
But if the Red Sox feel like they were robbed of their chance for a sweep by a bad, bad umpire, they have every right to. That was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad game by Dale Scott, and he should be in for some serious peer review.