At least that's the way it appeared in the ninth inning of the Red Sox' 1-0 loss to the Rays on Monday.
The Sox offense, which had been kept in check for the entire day, tried to put together a rally in the final inning after Dustin Pedroia drew a one-out walk and David Ortiz received an intentional free pass from closer Fernando Rodney.
In stepped Vanover.
The home-plate umpire made a few questionable calls during Cody Ross' two-out at-bat, eventually calling the Boston outfielder out on strikes to end the game.
Following the 1-0 Tampa victory, both Ross and first baseman Adrian Gonzalez — who grounded out to first in the ninth inning — weren't too pleased with Vanover's ninth-inning umpiring.
"It's tough because I'm up there battling my butt off, trying to get something going right there in a late situation," Ross said. "For me, it's unacceptable. I'm battling. I'm bearing down, our whole team is bearing down. Everybody on the field should be bearing down."
Ross said that he recognized the pitches as balls as they came out of Rodney's hand, which is why he elected not to swing at any pitch during the course of the at-bat. Vanover saw things differently, though, giving Rodney the outside corner — and perhaps beyond.
"It's tough," Ross said. "That's the crazy thing about this game. If I'm going up there and I'm striking out every at-bat, I'm going to get benched. But it's not that way with them. They can make bad calls all day and they're not going to be held accountable for it. It's such a tough situation, believe me. I've umpired before, it's tough, it's hard. But at this level, you have to bear down."
Although Ross was the one who fell victim to Vanover's wide strike zone, Gonzalez was quick to come to his teammate's defense.
"As far as the end of the game goes, those pitches that were called on Cody; it's just not right. They were in the left-handed batter's box," Gonzalez said. "The way I see it is we missed the playoffs by one game last year. If he walks there like he should have, someone gets a hit and we end up winning today, it could make a difference. Those three pitches to Cody; that shouldn't happen."
When asked if he offered up words of encouragement to Ross following the game-ending at-bat, Gonzalez noted that there's nothing you can really say following an incident like that.
"You look at the video, the over-the-top view and those pitches are in the left-handed batter's box, and they're not even close," Gonzalez said. "They don't start close and they don't end close so, it's unfortunate for Cody to have to end the game like that."
It's even more unfortunate that the Red Sox had to end the game like that, as it keeps them from reaching the .500 mark for the first time this season.
