Angels 5; White Sox 2; Umpires Pathetic

If you're a major league umpire, and affiliated with the pieces of shit who called the Angels - White Sox game today, you should be embarrassed for your profession. And if you're Hawk Harrelson, well, you're already an embarrassment, so there's really nowhere for you to go from there.

In the seventh inning, with runners on second and third with nobody out, Orlando Cabrera hit a sac fly to right field, where Ryan Sweeney made a great diving catch, allowing Reggie Willits to come home. Only, home plate umpire Adam Dowdy fucked it up by calling Willits out for leaving to early. Only problem? Willits didn't leave early. He left exactly when he was supposed to leave, as replays clearly showed. Harrelson's response? Willits shouldn't have made it so close that the umpire would screw it up. Apparently he should have hung around on third for a while before leaving.

You heard that right. According to the White Sox broadcasters (Darin Jackson was equally complicit), it's Reggie Willits' and Dino Ebel's fault that the umpires fucked up. Something tells me they wouldn't have come to the same conclusion if the tables had been turned.

The embarrassment continued in the top of the 8th when Shea Hillenbrand hit a slow grounder to third. The White Sox forced out Vlad at second, then threw to first for the double play, which Hillenbrand beat by about a step. It wasn't even close. He was called out.

What is it with umpires and White Sox/Angels games. Not only do the umpires continually fuck things up, but the Angels then get blamed. It was Josh Paul's fault for not tagging out a batter on the third strike that clearly never hit the dirt. It's Reggie Willits' fault for not lingering on third base longer. It's apparently not the umpires' fault for blowing the calls to begin with, and then compounding it by either lying blatantly about it on national television (Eddings) or tossing Mike Scioscia from the game (today's asshole Dowdy).

Kelvim Escobar was excellent all day, making only one mistake, a third inning high fastball on a 3-2 count that Darin Erstad deposited in the right field bleachers for an early White Sox lead. But Ztu and Vlad went back to back an inning later to tie the game, and a two out single from Cabrera in the top of the fifth gave the Angels the lead for good. Frankie recorded the last four outs, two by strikeout, for his eighth save.

Special congratulations to Brandon Wood for picking up his first hit and scoring his first run. And don't look now, but Gary Matthews is hitting .306 and starting produce every day.

Off to KC to hopefully take at least three and have a successful road trip.