Baseball: Umpire makes howler of 'botched' call

And NRL fans thought they had it bad!

In a year that seem plagued by referee stuff-ups and bunker blunders, rugby league supporters could be forgiven they had seen every bad call there is to see from officials.

But an absolute umpire howler in the Major League may convince them otherwise.

The absolutely jaw-dropping moment occurred at the bottom of the third innings during the matchup between the Houston Astros and Cleveland Indians on Thursday (US time).

Indians batter Lonnie Chisenhall was at the plate with the bases loaded when he chased a wild, low pitch from rival pitcher David Paulino.

Video of the pitch shows the ball bouncing out of the dirt and rearing up at Chisenhall.

The infielder tries to back out of the swing but the ball clearly clips his bat and flies out into foul territory.

But instead of returning the ball to the pitcher, the Homebase umpire allowed both third and second base to run home after ruling a wild pitch.

The Astros players immediately surrounded the umpire and he called a meeting with his fellow officials to discuss the unreviewable play.

But the mid-game pow-wow still failed to come to the correct decision and the two-run play was allowed to stand.

Astros manager A.J. Hinch couldn’t contain his frustration and was ejected for arguing the call. Cleveland eventually won 10-7

The amazing decision left the match commentators in disbelief of what they were witnessing.

"It could not be more evident than what we saw right there," one caller said.

"It's been completely botched by an umpiring crew," another added.