Baseball can be brutal, and umpires can make it worse. The Cubs just dropped a 2-0 game to the Diamondbacks on Wednesday, and the kicker is that the umpiring crew flat out missed an obvious balk in the sixth inning that would have given Chicago a crucial 1-0 lead. It was a brutal mistake, one that home plate umpire Alfonso Márquez admitted they got wrong *after* the game was over.
A Game-Changing Missed Call in the Sixth
The whole wild play went down in the sixth inning, with the score still locked at 0-0. Cubs leadoff man Pete Crow-Armstrong got things going with a double, then moved to third on a groundout. With two outs and Michael Busch at the plate, D-backs starter Eduardo Rodriguez was on the mound. As Rodriguez went into his windup, Crow-Armstrong took off like he was trying to steal home. That move totally flustered the All-Star pitcher, who was clearly in his windup, not the stretch. Rodriguez stepped backward off the pitching rubber and then still threw the pitch to the plate. That’s a balk, plain and simple! But what did the umpiring crew do after they got together to discuss it? Alfonso Márquez announced over the loudspeaker that they “determined it is not a balk.” You gotta be kidding me.
Crow-Armstrong and Counsell Are Fuming
Pete Crow-Armstrong was absolutely livid. Seriously, he had to be held back by third base coach Quintin Berry, that’s how mad he was. After the game, he didn’t hold back. “I saw four umpires miss a pretty obvious play,” Crow-Armstrong said, “They’re out there every day just like we are. Their one job is to get calls right and if they get it wrong, they’re supposed to talk about it, figure it out and get it right. And they didn’t.” He said he understood how the home plate umpire might miss it, but not the others. “I don’t know how you miss somebody starting their motion and then stopping it and stepping off,” he added. Cubs manager Craig Counsell was just as furious. “They flat out missed it,” Counsell said. “It’s obvious to everybody on TV, it’s obvious to anybody, they missed it. I don’t even know what to say. It’s hard to argue when they just flat out miss it.” Even Márquez himself had to fess up post-game, saying, “We just didn’t see it. After looking at the video, it looked like he stepped off.”
It’s just unacceptable. A clear balk, a run that would have put them up 1-0, and the umpires blew it. The Cubs ultimately lost 2-0, and that missed call is just hanging over everything, a brutal reminder of what could have been.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by CBS Sports.
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