Let's recap the last few weeks in the world of the Seattle Mariners. Last week, Cameron Maybin drew a three-ball walk that came back to haunt the Mariners. The entire team, including Eric Wedge, missed it and therefor lost their chance to protest. On Saturday, Eric Wedge ripped the umpires for being too sensitive and missing a call after he was ejected. So what happened on Sunday? Another three-ball walk, this time to Bobby Abreu. You cannot make this up.
Here's the MLB Game Tracker for Abreu's walk. This time, there was no foul balls and no confusion, just a terribly blown call. When Game Tracker has a blank pitch, you know someone, usually an umpire, screwed up.
And as mad as I'd love to be at the umpires, this one is on Wedge. A manager cannot tell the team and the media that he needs to be responsible for the count and providing checks and balances for the umpires, then fail to notice a three-ball walk again a week later. It cannot happen, and the mistakes all-around, by Wedge and the home plate umpire, are ridiculous.
This time, the walk didn't hurt the Mariners as Felix Hernandez got out of the inning. Still, it's unacceptable that this happened again.