Brutal umpiring moment nearly screwed Dodgers before Teoscar Hernández's clutch hit

The Los Angeles Dodgers survived a rain-soaked extra-innings marathon against the New York Mets on Friday night in Queens thanks to a clutch hit off the bat of Teoscar Hernández in the 13th inning. But it was play all the way back during the bottom of the fourth that drew ire of Dodgers' fans. Oddly enough, Hernández was involved in that play as well.

With one out and a runner on third base in the fourth inning, a fly ball off the bat of Mets' star Pete Alonso found Hernández's glove, and the Dodgers' outfielder gunned a throw to the plate in an effort to end the inning. Hernández's throw was on the money, as Will Smith received a bullet and applied the tag to Mets' outfielder Starling Marte. The home plate umpire ruled Marte out at the plate and the Dodgers began to walk off the field.

But third base umpire Tripp Gibson stopped the show, waved his arms in the air, and the Dodgers were stopped in their tracks. What the heck was going on? As it turns out, the umpire called obstruction on Dodgers' third baseman Max Muncy and awarded Marte home plate. The absurd ruling pulled New York within a run and the inning continued.

Umpire nearly screws over Dodgers with controversial call vs Mets

Dodgers fans were stunned. What happened? Did Muncy step into the base line? Did he trip Marte or grab ahold of his jersey? No, it was nothing like that. After watching multiple replay angles, it became apparent that Gibson ruled Muncy had walked into Marte's line of sight to right field and impeded his vision, causing the runner to hesitate longer than he should have at third base. Are you kidding?

By the letter of the law, there is a gray area that might allow for the interpretation to be stretched to the point where Gibson made the correct call, but you have to squint really hard to see it. According to MLB rules, if a player not fielding the ball impedes the progress of any runner, the ball is ruled dead, and that runner will be awarded an extra base. This was a rule said to have received increased emphasis last season.

Thankfully, this purely asinine ruling on the part of Gibson didn't cost the Dodgers the game. LA and New York were deadlocked at five runs apiece heading into the 13th inning, and leadoff double from Hernández broke the tie. A sacrifice fly from Andy Pages pushed LA's lead to two, and Luis García shut down the Mets' bats in the bottom of the inning.

According to Muncy, Gibson called obstruction twice during Friday's game. The second time came on Pages' sac fly, but because Hernández scored anyway, there was no need to enforce the ruling. After securing the win, Dodgers fans can relax a little bit. That doesn't excuse the ump show, however. These types of judgment calls are oftentimes completely arbitrary and rarely enforced. Gibson just wanted to flex his muscle on national television. Congrats, Tripp. You looked like a complete nitwit.

More LA Dodgers News and Rumors