What the author of this piece fails to mention is that the Rangers got a makeup call in the top of the sixth, with Chris Davis being ruled safe on what should have been a 1-4-3 double play. That allowed Hank Blalock to score, so effectively the errors cancelled out.

Dale Scott had a pretty good view of this play, so there's no excuse for it.

That's true, although the Davis play was a far closer and far more forgiveable blown call. He was clearly out upon review of instant replay, but it was such a bang-bang play that it's not nearly as huge a mistake as Scott's blunder.

Additionally, third base umpire Dan Iassogna failed to get out of the way on Torii Hunter's mishandled throw from center field on the play that immediately preceded the Davis play. The Rangers' broadcasters said the ball would have likely gone into the dugout if not for his terrible positioning, which would have scored Blalock and also Byrd from second.

So, no, the umpires' actions don't really nullify each other. Texas didn't play particularly well and probably deserved to lose regardless, but the umpires still likely cost the Rangers at least one run in a game that was decided by one run.

Umpires suck, bring out the robots...

The umps made up for it all for Texas on Sunday.

Seriously... what a horribly umpired series...

Seems to be increasingly becomming par for the course, I'm afraid...

Seems to be increasingly becomming par for the course, I'm afraid...

The umpires are surely not making a case against instant replay by making such a large number of mistakes.

I for one think that the gross incompetence of umpires deciding the outcome of games is simply part of the romance of baseball, and the joy of the human element. Do we really want to see the winner and loser decided on the basis of which team played better on the field? Far better for it to be decided by whether a preening tub of lard is wearing his contacts that day.