The A's lost to the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday. It was the A's 24th loss in their last 28 games and the team that plays their home games in Sacramento this season is now 26-44, which is bad enough for last place in the AL West.
As you can imagine, wins are at a premium for A's pitchers this season. Starting pitchers Jeffrey Springs and JP Sears are tied for the team-lead in W's with five each. Sears had an opportunity to get his sixth win of the season last night after throwing 5 1/3 innings.
Sears left the game with two runners on with the A's. up 3-0 in the sixth inning and was replaced by Grand Holman. With a 3-2 count, Holman threw a breaking ball that was pretty clearly a strike, but it was not caught by catcher Willie MacIver, so home plate umpire Gabe Morales, who looked like he wanted to call a strike until it popped out of Maaciver's glove, called it a ball.
Sears was not happy and when the Angels tied the game a few pitches later on a ball hit to second base, he lost his mind.
Sears struck out nine in the game and ended up credited for the first two Angels runs while he watched helplessly from the dugout. All he could really do is scream and scream he did.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as A's Pitcher Has Meltdown After Bad Call Robs Him of Potential Win, Gets Ejected.