Umpires screwed Astros again with bizarre Jose Altuve non-call and ejection firestorm

The good news for the Houston Astros on Tuesday was that they were able to grind out a tough win in extra innings over a very game opponent in the Padres. The bad news is that the umpiring crew in this series seemed to be trying to do everything in their power to make getting that win as difficult as was humanly possible, outside of adopting Eric Gregg's playoff strike zone for only one side.

Things already started going off the rails late in the game when Josh Hader was initially called for a pitch clock violation after umpires failed to grant him the ability to step off (despite the rules clearly stating he was allowed to). After a lengthy delay, the umpiring crew stumbled upon the correct decision eventually, but Hader spiked his first pitch after the delay to give the Padres a run. That probably wasn't coincidental.

Making matters worse, the ninth inning rolled around with San Diego rolling with Robert Suarez to face Jose Altuve. With the winning run on second base, a soft ground ball from Altuve became the final out of the inning. Altuve was adamant that he fouled the ball off his foot, but the umpires remained steadfast that the play was an out despite a preponderance of evidence to the contrary. After Altuve took off his cleat and sock to show them where the ball hit him, they promptly ejected him, along with manager Joe Espada.

The ump show was in full effect in Astros' win over Padres, screwing Jose Altuve

At some point, enough is enough with these umpires thinking that they are infallible. Everyone could see the wrong call was made, but it feels like umps right now are so dug in, aware they could be replaced by a toddler and ABS with better results. Clearly, they are now making their last stand, for better or worse.

After the game, Espada made his displeasure with the call and the umpires clearly known. "It's a foul ball," he began. "You have to see the ball once he hits the foot, the flight of the ball. I don't get it. I don't understand. That's twice this year. I have a lot of respect for the umpires. They work hard. But there are four out there. You have to be able to see it. They missed that call."

Apparently, you don't have to see it to be gainfully employed as an umpire in Major League Baseball.

This isn't the first time that the Astros have run afoul of some questionable umpiring this year, and it probably won't be the last. Alex Bregman not only got ejected for correctly calling out a brutal strike zone in late August, but then ran afoul of one of the worst umpires in baseball, Brian O'Nora, when a foul tip was called against him a week later despite the ball never coming close to touching his bat. Somehow, that part of the call was not reviewable.

These are just the recent examples of umpire malfeasance against Houston. There are scores of terribly called games, awful judgment calls, and indefensible replay reviews that have happened all across MLB this season. At this point, we should bring on our robot overlords, because the "human element" of umpiring just keeps getting worse and worse.

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