I try to make an effort to never blame the umpires for wins or losses. Brett Gardner being thrown out at first or Matt Wieters being called safe likely wouldn’t have changed the outcome of Monday night’s game, but, hey — who knows?

With one out in the top of the sixth inning, Freddy Garcia walked Brett Gardner. Matt Wieters threw down to first and caught Gardner off the base, but umpire Eric Cooper called Gardner safe. Here’s a screenshot of Chris Davis placing the tag on the Yankees outfielder.

Brett Gardner called safe on Matt Wieters throw down to first - Orioles vs. Yankees

Yeah, clearly out.

Garcia would walk Robinson Cano on four pitches and then get Travis Hafner to ground into an inning ending double play five pitches later.

In the bottom half of the inning, Wieters stepped into the box with a runner on first and no outs. The O’s catcher hit a slow roller down the third base line and beat out the throw from David Adams. Again, Cooper called it wrong, saying that Wieters failed to reach the base before the throw hit Lyle Overbay‘s glove.

Matt Wieters called out when he was obviously safe - Yankees at Orioles

This screenshot says otherwise.

Interesting note: I took that screenshot from the YES broadcast because MASN cameras didn’t show a clear enough replay. Yankees announcers Michael Kay and Ken Singleton agreed that Cooper made the wrong call.

Buck Showalter came out for a lengthy discussion, though he wasn’t ejected. The Orioles made the last two out of the inning on a Danny Valencia line out to third and Steve Pearce groundout. Maybe two on and no outs would have changed the momentum in their favor.

Maybe not, but we’ll never know.