Yankees robbed of fair shot at 9th-inning comeback vs. Cardinals by umpire power trip

The New York Yankees were essentially dead and buried in the eighth inning of Saturday's game against the St. Louis Cardinals -- as they often are when Will Warren's on the mound.

Trailing 6-1 with two outs in the frame after being lulled to sleep by Kyle Gibson (who hasn't been?), New York mounted a somewhat inexplicable comeback, cemented by Giancarlo Stanton's emphatic bases-clearing double that nearly left the yard and tied the game. Alex Verdugo (thanks!) grounded out on the first pitch, but a clean ninth inning left it up to 9-1-2 against all-world closer Ryan Helsley in a one-run game. All things considered, that wasn't a bad place to be.

Of course, because this is the 2024 Yankees, all the frenzied comeback did was make the game's end result a level or two more frustrating.

The game ended 6-5 with two runners on base, as Austin Wells swung over a full-count breaking ball. That made the winning run the one that scored when Wells threw a rolling baseball into left field, allowing a sprinting Cardinal to score from second with Mark "Gas Can" Leiter Jr. on the rubber.

Oh, and the Yankees' batters somehow managed to record only two outs in their final frame at the plate. One of the "outs" in the inning was bestowed upon Oswaldo Cabrera, who was deemed to be in violation of the pitch clock ahead of Helsley's 3-2 offering. On a technicality? Sure. But Helsley was wandering around the back of the mound, completely unprepared to throw, as Cabrera was hustling to get back into the box. Why is the hitter penalized for the pitcher taking his sweet time, exactly? And why is that borderline call being made with the Yankees at home, with their foot on the gas pedal, in a one-run game?

Umpire Ben May steals ninth inning showdown from Yankees vs. Cardinals

The goal, of course, is to not put yourself in a place where you're trailing the middling Cardinals in the ninth in the first place. But, after the Yankees slept through Gibson's innings, that was no longer an option. They still had a chance to win the game in front of them, and it was taken away from them by home plate umpire Ben May, who decided that his favorite part of baseball isn't the mano-a-mano confrontations, but rather, the technicalities.

Yankees haters aren't going to enjoy this, "The Letter of the Law Sucks!" take, but even the saltiest among us can agree that Juan Soto's rocket two-out double would've been far more interesting with a runner on first, and Cabrera was one misplaced fastball away from igniting a rally. All we ask for in the postseason is for the men with the bats and the gloves to make their own luck instead of a dude sitting behind the plate handing out a red card because of a wayward toenail.

This team comes back so rarely that it stings doubly when an outside force interferes in their opportunities to do so.