The world’s tiniest violins are playing for the Yankees this morning. Umpire Jerry Meals called Texeira out on a head first dive into first that ended the game with a runner on third, with Baltimore winning 5-4. He was clearly safe. Breaking: sometimes there are bad calls in baseball. Sometimes those bad calls come in the ninth inning. Sometimes the runner is Jorge Orta. Sometimes, the gods of baseball frown upon a head first dive into first. It happens.

The Yankees, though, now find themselves in a tie with Baltimore again for the Eastern Division. Thus, you get whack job conspiracy theories. Mark Texeira said:

Sometimes you wonder if the umpires are just trying to get out of there. They don’t want you to make a comeback. They want to go home because those were terrible calls.

Texeira had previously been called out on strikes in the 8th inning and argued the call. He went on to add:

“I’m probably going to get fined,” Teixeira said. “But I don’t care, really. I’m out there fighting. We are out there fighting. When you are battling like we are battling and they can’t get a call right, that pisses you off. It really does.”

Russell Martin added: “I didn’t feel we lost the game, I feel we got cheated out of it. Once again, it is part of the game of baseball. Umpires are human. They are going to make mistakes.”

Nice of Martin and Texeira to both add those disclaimers, and according to the official game records, the Yankees lost. If they don’t win the division, it will be because of a lot more than one call in one game.

[photo via @JimmyTraina]