Matt Albers came in for his second inning of relief in a tie game in the seventh. He looked sharp early, getting ahead of Jean Segura with a mix of sinkers and sliders. Segura fouled off a couple pitches he probably shouldn’t have touched and stayed alive despite swinging late and chasing balls in the dirt. Then Albers finally got the swing and miss he needed, but catcher Yasmani Grandal couldn’t handle the third strike. It got past him, Segura reached first, and Albers looked furious. Grandal slipped while chasing the ball and tried to play it off with a smile, but no one was buying it. The team avoided talking to him, clearly blaming him for the miscue.
Segura then stole second easily, putting the go-ahead run in scoring position. The next batter ripped a double, driving Segura home. That run ended up being the difference, and it went down in the books as an earned run against Albers, even though it all unraveled after the missed third strike. Albers looked exhausted and frustrated in the dugout, knowing he pitched well but got burned by a mistake that wasn’t his.