What was this umpire thinking?

[blueump]

I saw this play by the Detroit Tigers about 3 years ago. BR heading to first after a ground ball the the pitcher. The pitcher could never get a good handle on the ball and kept bobbling it between his hand and his glove as he headed toward first. Eventually the ball fell from his hand toward the ground. The pitcher then simply kicked at the ball, it hit his foot perfectly, and went directly into the first baseman's outstretched glove for an out.

I don't care how it gets there. It's an out.