Astros get completely screwed by replay fiasco, highlights need for umpiring changes

Teams getting screwed by bad calls from umpires is hardly a new phenomenon. While we don't really get games like Eric Gregg's "master class" anymore, especially now that Angel Hernandez retired, umpiring in baseball still isn't in a great spot. As the Houston Astros found out on Thursday, the use of replay review is still not enough to keep the boys in blue from screwing up a game.

In the top of the fourth inning, Alex Bregman came to the plate with one out, and seemed to get clipped on his arm by a pitch from the Reds' Rhett Lowder. However, one of the worst umpires in baseball, Brian O'Nora, said it was a foul tip instead. The Astros immediately challenged, and what transpired afterwards was comedically terrible. Watch for yourself behind the link above.

Houston could challenge that Bregman was hit by the pitch and did so. However, the replay umps somehow couldn't figure out that the ball hit him. What ISN'T reviewable is the foul tip call, so once the initial ruling stood, Bregman had a strike called against him. He would later strike out, Joe Espada was ejected, the Astros saw the next two batters reach but failed to score, and Houston lost a 1-0 game with the Mariners winning behind them. But other than that!

Thursday's egregious Bregman HBP non-call should wake MLB up that foul tips need to be reviewable. The Astros got screwed.

Look, umpiring is genuinely hard, and getting every call right in a split second is never going to happen. No one should expect that. However, the goal of replay review is to GET THE DAMN CALLS RIGHT, and that is where Bregman, the Astros, and baseball as a whole experienced a failure yesterday.

Let's assume that there are those of you out there that agree that there wasn't enough video evidence to rule Bregman got hit by the pitch. You would be wrong, but it isn't a crazy notion. What is abundantly clear, no matter what camera angle you look at, is that the ball did not touch his bat. Part of that failure is on O'Nora, who has a habit of missing crucial calls and is generally bad at his job. However, the review booth should have been able to fix this one.

Unfortunately, MLB decided for reasons passing understanding that foul tips are not reviewable. What value such a rule has is beyond human understanding. One can comprehend not overruling the call on the field when it's hard to see, but this was clear as day not a foul tip. There just no excuse for it, and everyone knows it.

The end result is another Astros' loss when they are trying to close out the AL West race. This one individual result isn't likely to matter all that much, and if Houston's offense had shown up on Thursday, this is likely an afterthought. Now Houston just has to hope that Kyle Tucker's impending return can give them another boost so that the rest of the season doesn't get too interesting, forcing us to look back at this game as one that made a difference.

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