The grand slam was completed in the bottom of the sixth of last night's 3-2 loss to the Astros when Houston starter J.A. Happ hit Shane Victorino with a pitch, only to have home-plate umpire Brian Knight declare that the batter hadn't made an effort to avoid the ball. The Phillies were down by a run at the time. Knight, to his credit, consulted with Sam Holbrook at first; the crew chief confirmed the call. That's a rule that's rarely enforced.
Phillies manager Charlie Manuel was back on the field in the seventh to argue a bang-bang play at third in which Ben Francisco was picked off by catcher Humberto Quintero, killing a potential rally with Jimmy Rollins at the plate. Replays appeared to show that Gibson got this one right, as well as when he turned thumbs down on a checked-swing appeal with Astros second baseman Anderson Hernandez at the plate in the eighth. No matter. The knee-jerk boos rolled down from the stands at Citizens Bank Park.
This is great talk-show fodder, but there are at least a couple of good reasons not to let it ruin your day.
The first is that those calls, no matter how egregious, aren't why the Phillies have lost three straight. They've lost three straight because they scored two runs in each game, wasting strong starts by Joe Blanton, Cole Hamels and Roy Halladay. Period. If they had hit the way they're supposed to, we wouldn't still be talking about umpires.
Victorino neatly demonstrated the point last night. After being ordered back to the plate on a call he clearly disagreed with, he singled to left. End of debate.
