Make no mistake, the Boston Red Sox weren't doing themselves any favors on Friday night for the season's first trip to Yankee Stadium to face the hated New York Yankees.

After a rain delay in the middle of the third inning, Red Sox starter Tanner Houck came back out but looked nothing like he had over the first two frames, getting himself into quite a bit of trouble. That was exacerbated by second baseman Enmanuel Valdez costing the team one double play by bobbling a grounder (limiting it to just one out) and then sailing an easy flip to Ceddanne Rafaela that resulted in no outs and a run when they could've been out of the inning.

So to start, we have the Red Sox battling Mother Nature, battling their biggest rival in the Yankees, and even battling themselves when it comes to the defense in the middle of the infield. The last thing they needed was to also be battling Roberto Ortiz's umpire crew. Naturally, they had to do that too and Tyler O'Neill felt that most egregiously.

O'Neill, facing Nestor Cortes in the top of the sixth inning, was trying to get something going with the Red Sox down 3-1 in the game. He battled mightily with Cortes, fouling off pitch after pitch, three in total with two strikes and two when he had a full count against him. Then came the ninth pitch of the at-bat as Cortes tried to backdoor a sweeper. It didn't sweep nearly enough and never came close to sniffing the plate.

Strike 3.

Says a lot when Tyler O'Neill is this angry. pic.twitter.com/bchUenkLSI

— Tyler Milliken ⚾️ (@tylermilliken_) July 6, 2024

Umpiring is not an easy job. I'm aware of that. There are some calls that you can understand how they get missed. A sinker or a splitter dips out of the bottom of the zone but looks like it may have crossed. A breaking ball breaks out of the zone but could've possibly clipped the corner. That makes sense.

It'll never make sense, however, when you see a pitch like this. At no point was it anywhere across the plate and yet Ortiz still wrung up O'Neill. The Red Sox outfielder told you everything you needed to know too as a player who never argues was visibly upset at the umpire after striking out on Ball 4.

What's worse, this was just one costly example of that. Multiple times through multiple pitchers, the Yankees were getting the benefit of the call at home against their hated rival. I'm not saying that this is a conspiracy theory but, if there was something fishy, it wouldn't be surprising with how many outside balls were called strikes (the Red Sox, admittedly, did get a call or two as well, but that's standard).

If this is what Boston is going to have to deal with in their second series of the year against the Yankees, they better come up with some magic to combat both the Yankees and the umpires. They're going to need it.