Umpires Screw Up Another Call on This Texas Rangers 'Double Play' [GIF]

It hasn’t been a banner year for umpiring in Major League Baseball and it took another turn for the worse Friday night in Seattle during the Rangers 9-5 win over the Mariners.

In the second inning the Mariners hit into a double play, except they really didn’t.

Seattle’s Jesus Sacre, in his first big league at-bat, hit a grounder to Mitch Moreland at first, who then threw to Elvis Andrus at second for the force out. Andrus’ return throw was intercepted by Rangers pitcher Justin Grimm — at least 4-5 feet away from first base.  Somehow Sacre was still called out by umpire Jeff Nelson, in what was initially scored a 3-6-3 double play. (Later it was changed to a 3-6-1.)

Seattle manager Eric Wedge came out to argue … that Moreland was off the bag when he “caught” it. He told the Tacoma News-Tribune:

“I thought (Moreland) came off the bag, so that was what I was out there arguing. I didn’t come to find out until later with the replay that he didn’t even catch the ball. … It would have been a much bigger argument if I had known that at the time, no doubt about it.”

[GIF via r/Baseball]