Blue Jays 11 White Sox 9: Reyburned

Hawk Harrelson has been known to go on rants about umpires during games every once in a while. The overwhelming majority of the time I just laugh it off, as it's usually taking place during a game the Sox have no chance of winning, so at the very least it provides some entertainment.

Today was different. Today I agreed with Hawk.

D.J. Reyburn was absolutely terrible today. Just horrible. When pitchers get close calls I can deal with it, but when pitchers are getting four inches off the outside corner of the plate, or two inches below the knees, it bothers me a bit.

At least it does when one team is getting those pitches called for strikes while the other one isn't.

Toronto got those calls on Sunday. The White Sox just got a lot of baffling looks.

I mean, the fact that Robin Ventura got ejected for the first second time as a manager today -- throwing his first "tantrum" -- is a good indication of how terrible the balls and strikes were behind home plate. Though, personally, I'd have preferred to see Robin make his stand in the fifth or sixth inning rather than the ninth as Reyburn may have adjusted over the final half of the game.

Now, to be clear, I'm not blaming this loss on Reyburn or third base umpire Ron Kulpa who seems to have been misinformed on what is fair or foul, and when runners should be allowed to score from first on ground rule doubles. This isn't solely the fault of the umpires.

They didn't allow 4 home runs or walk 9 batters, they only helped it along.

And, as terrible as Reyburn was behind the plate, the Sox did still manage to score 9 runs. How many more runs they'd have scored if they received the same strike zone Toronto hitters were getting, I don't know.

All in all, it was just a very ugly game. An ugly game that lasted 3 hours and 48 minutes and featured 390 pitches. An ugly game that makes me happy that the All Star break is here and I'll have five days to erase this one from the memory banks.

BOX SCORE