Rocco Baldelli calls out umpires after controversial Alex Kirilloff pitch clock violation

While the Minnesota Twins won a weekend series over a very good Toronto Blue Jays club, Sunday's loss has left a sour taste in the mouths of everyone for a number of different reasons.

Emilio Pagan is rightfully bearing the brunt of the blame after blowing yet another lead while on the mound. With the Twins up 6-4 in the eighth inning, Pagan surrendered three runs and might have hammered the final nail in his coffin.

There was another moment in the game that, until Pagan became the Main Character, seemed to be a potential hinge on which the game could swing.

In the sixth inning, with two runners on and two outs, Alex Kirilloff was ruled out after the home plate umpire charged him with a pitch clock violation.

At the time it was infuriating to watch the inning end in such a manner, but in the grand scheme of things it might have cost the Twins a chance to either force extra innings or outright win the game.

After Pagan came on in the eighth and blew the lead, Toronto would go on to win by just a single run, which might not have been the case if Kirilloff wasn't called out on the pitch clock violation.

Needless to say, Baldelli wasn't pleased about the incident after the game was over.

Twins manager calls out umpires after Alex Kirilloff pitch clock violation

After the game, Baldelli spoke about the incident and was steadfast in his belief that Kirilloff got screwed over by the umpires.

"I've already looked at [the replay], before eight seconds he's ready to hit," Baldelli said. "When the clock strikes eight he also looks down for a split second and there's also several frames where he's actually looking up directly at the pitcher."

To be fair to the umpires, Baldelli admitted that they're not going to make a call that they don't feel strongly about being correct. That being said, he reiterated that he believed it was close enough to give Kirilloff the benefit of the doubt.

"If you're going to make the call, make sure that he's not looking up when the clock's at eight," Baldelli said. "We have several very, very easy to see angles to see of him looking up at the pitcher."

This isn't the first time umpires have entered the chat in terms of altering the game away from the Twins favor. Lest we forget the German Dominguez sticky stuff situation in which Rocco became so incensed at the umpiring crew that he was ejected from the game.

We knew the pitch clock would affect games this year, and it's only a matter of time before if impacts an important one. The Twins still walked away from the weekend series with a win and control of first place in the AL Central, but it's hard to feel good about the way things went on Sunday.