Blue Jays fans will feel sick watching White Sox outfielder's decision vs. Yankees

If you're a Toronto Blue Jays fan stuck in a heated division race trying to avoid the perils of the Wild Card, all you want is a fair playing field. On Tuesday night, you didn't get one. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the second, George Springer laced a ball clearly fair down the left-field line for what should've been a two-run double; the umpire didn't see it that way.

On the very next pitch, his cohort determined Ball 3 well outside to be the at-bat's final strike. It was so egregious that it made me want to check and see if Brian Walsh was behind the dish (the Jays were playing the Red Sox, duh). Oh well. Time to absolve my Canadian sourrouws, eh, and turn over to the Yankees game to check out — dammit.

Instead of watching the final out of a depressing, LOB-filled Yankees loss to the 58-98 White Sox, Jays fans were treated to a Yankees celebration so furious that it almost obscured the questionable play that helped secure it.

With runners on first and second and two outs, Jose Caballero heroically battled for nine pitches and poked a looper into center field in his first at-bat after being inserted as a pinch runner. That cannot be denied. But check out Michael A. Taylor in center, one of the game's best defenders at the position, who's apparently aged out of diving?

Yankees walk off White Sox to clinch playoffs after Michael A. Taylor's questionable decision

That non-dive made Taylor the most reviled "Guy With An A For a Middle Initial" in the sports world for at least a couple of seconds. And certainly in the Ontario market.

This wasn't the only way in which the White Sox handed the Yankees the walk-off, of course. The game was only tied because of a full-count wild pitch that sailed four feet above catcher Kyle Teel's rangiest leap. Chicago had 'em on the ropes after a buzzkill Trent Grisham double play, then gave it all back. If I was barely hanging onto a division lead that should've been clinched a week ago, I'd be punching air, too.

But Taylor's decision wasn't "the breaks of the game". Sometimes pitches get away from you. Deciding not to risk a headlong dive in exchange for a 0.0% chance of throwing out a sprinting Judge at the plate — then beefing the throw into the ground anyway — is a new kind of pain. It's not supposed to look so plainly like one team cares and the other one doesn't. If I'm trying to fend off a playoff challenger from afar, I want to see that the Marlins have shuffled Sandy Alcantara into their series with the Mets because ... why not compete? I don't want to see a veteran center fielder resign himself to fate (or somehow foolishly calculate that loading up his bazooka arm is the better play, only to instead shoot wet droplets into the infield).

The Jays still hold their AL East fate in their own hands. They'll probably be fine. Probably. But it can't have felt good to get jobbed in a home game, watch your offense recede in that moment, then flip the TV to another pivotal contest and watch some preventable dramatics.