Umpire Jerry Meals badly blows Mark Teixeira call at first (Picture)

The Yankees-Orioles game ended in controversy Saturday thanks to a badly blown call by umpire Jerry Meals that cost the Yankees the game.

Mark Teixeira was up in the 9th inning with one out and the Yankees trailing the Orioles 5-4. Teixeira grounded a ball to second with men on the corners, and the Orioles attempted to turn two. They got Nick Swisher out with a force at second, and then J.J. Hardy threw to first to try and get Teixeira on the double play. Even though Teixeira clearly beat the throw, he was called out by Jerry Meals to end the game.

Had Teixeira rightfully been called safe, Chris Dickerson crossing home would have counted as a run to tie the game at 5. The Yankees would have had Alex Rodriguez up with two outs, a man on first, and the game tied 5-5. Even if A-Rod made the last out of the inning, the game would still have continued to the bottom of the 9th tied.

Below is a video of the play:

The botched call was extremely costly for New York. The team is in a race for first with the Orioles, and the loss left the teams tied atop the AL East with 78-61 records.

“You hate to lose a game that way, but he missed it,” said Yankees Manager Joe Girardi.

Yes he did.

Mark Teixeira, who was playing with a tight calf and is likely to miss a few games because of it, questioned Meals’ motives.

“Sometimes you wonder if the umpires are trying to get out of there,” he said after the game, per Brian Hoch. “They don’t want you to make a comeback, they want to go home.”

Catcher Russell Martin have even harsher words for the umps.

“I didn’t really feel like we lost the game, I feel like we got cheated out of it,” he said.

As bad as a call as this was, it’s actually not the most egregious error we’ve seen from Meals. This horrible call last year was.

Thanks to Jimmy Traina for the pic and tip