It’s not uncommon to see a Major League Baseball umpire with an emphatic motion to signal strike three. Some have their own signature moves. On Sunday, Ryan Blakney gave an overly enthusiastic call for a strike that wasn’t the third one.
With a two ball, one strike count during the top of the fifth inning of a game between the Astros and Mariners, Mike Montgomery delivered a curveball that Luis Valbuena watched go by for strike two. Based on the reaction by Blakney, you would’ve thought it was strike three.
Valbuena’s look of confusion immediately after was one that was surely shared by more than a few in Safeco Field, including in the Astros dugout. A few moments later, we get this great shot of Blakney and the Houston third baseman both holding up two fingers to indicate the correct number of strikes.
I wonder what the exchange of words between Valbuena and Blakney was like? Valbuena walked three pitches later.
