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Michael Westbay
(aka westbaystars)
Founder
"Last night an umpire helped the Giants again."]
This may be a little off-topic on this thread [note: created new thread], but the game last night (June 6) between the Yomiuri Giants and the Hiroshima Carp was one of the worst umped games I have seen here in a long time.
Hiroshima's starting pitcher Takahashi's frustration when he threw the ball in anger after letting a 3-run home run to Etoh was cleraly understandable; he had thrown about 5 strikes to previous batters that were called balls.
Furthermore, in the top of the 9th, a replay of Saitoh's slide into third base showed that he had been out. It may seem safe to many of you Giants' fans, but News Station clearly showed the play in closeup, and Saitoh was definitely out. Arai, who was obviously more than 100% sure that Saitoh was out, couldn't control his emotions and was ejected for yelling and pushing the umpire.
Yesterday's umpiring was clearly an example of why some people are anti-Giants. Hiroshima would have taken yesterday's game easily hadn't it been for such pathetic umpiring.