Umpire Alan Porter tossed two Pirates coaches in the sixth inning on Saturday. Pittsburgh lost the game to the Blue Jays 5-2, dropping the series. But the worst part wasn’t the loss; it was an umpire refusing to look at a replay challenge. Kelly faded away inside the tunnel as the Pirates surrendered the series, but the fans are leaving no stone unturned, calling out the umpire.

“Umpire Alan Porter initially failed to recognize a Pirates challenge request,” Umpire Auditor shared via X. When pitching coach, Bill Murphy, complained, Porter pointed at Murphy, shouted, “Get the f— out of here”, and ejected him. The next pitch, manager Don Kelly complained about a check swing call, and Porter ejected him, too.”

The whole sequence was a mess. The drama unfolded in the sixth inning, but initially, it was not about Kelly. Pirates’ Yohan Ramirez was at the mound, while the Jays’ Lenyn Sosa was at the plate. A 96 mph four-seam fastball off Ramirez was called a ball by Porter. The call was quickly challenged by the Pirates’ catcher, Henry Davis.

The footage shows he tapped on the right side of his helmet facing the pitcher, which Porter surely missed. Davis stood up and called for a review again as the Pirates’ pitching coach, Bill Murphy, was throwing some words from the dugout. Porter took no time ejecting Murphy for the same and even threw some expletives. However, he eventually allowed the ABS call.

The replay overturned the call and gave it a strike. However, the next pitch, a sweeper off Ramirez that Sosa seemed to check swing. This time, first base umpire Willie Traynor called it a ball again, which forced Kelly to throw himself in. Porter got involved and immediately asked Kelly to get out of the dugout.

Kelly charged out of the dugout to confront Porter. Bench coach Kristopher Negron had to step between them to stop things from getting physical. Negron then took over as manager for the rest of the game.

For the unversed, this is not the first time that Kelly and Porter have come face-to-face. On May 2, in a game against the Reds, the Pirates’ reliever, Chris Devenski’s sinker, went too close to the Reds’ Sal Stewart. Devenski was ejected by Porter, which made Kelly question why. Kelly was suspended for one game as a result. So, the bad blood was already there, which just burst out on Saturday.

Since Kelly was already suspended once this month, getting tossed so aggressively puts him at risk for more punishment from the league. That is a big deal for a Pirates team fighting to stay alive in the NL Central.

The Blue Jays series is lost, but for the Pirates fans, they are yet to get over the controversial umpiring.

MLB fans are left unimpressed

Fans are wondering what made Porter not check his emotions despite being at home plate in the game.

“Alan Porter has been working hard on his case for the worst umps in the league. One thing to constantly miss calls, but it’s another to constantly be incapable of keeping emotions in check. Dudes a joke,” one fan said.

Previously, we have seen players and managers losing their cool while the umpires try to calm down the situation. However, this time, even before both came face-to-face, Porter ejected Kelly and Murphy, which made the fans think that it was the umpire who escalated the issue here.

“The ump unnecessarily escalated,” another added.

However, we are not sure what type of expletives were thrown at the home plate umpire from the dugout, and if any. Maybe an official statement from the umpire could clear out the confusion here.

“ABS has umpires scrambling to find new and innovative ways to be embarrassing,” one user remarked. “They’re going to have to quickly discipline umpires who ignore challenges because they don’t like the system. Or the rebellion will grow,” another added.

The new ABS (Automated Ball-Strike) challenge system has totally changed how umpires handle games. The system tracks their accuracy for the whole world to see. Because of this pressure, some umpires are reportedly fighting back by delaying or ignoring team challenges.

In the past, fans just accepted bad calls as human error. Now, a bad call gets tracked by data and goes viral online. To avoid that public embarrassment, some umpires are allegedly using their power to deny challenges from the jump.

“The batter tapped the right side of his helmet, facing the pitcher, and didn’t see that. Should tap the top of the helmet, making it clearly visible,” one fan suggested.

It could be a reason why Porter missed Davis’ review call. MLB could check if tapping at the top of the helmet or calling out vocally makes a difference. Till then, ABS seems to be the flashpoint between the umpires and the teams.