“Timmy told me that he had stepped a bit towards first base, and my response was, ‘That may be true, but he also stepped towards home plate,’” Maddon said. “I thought it was clearly a balk, and obviously you can’t argue a balk. You can get kicked out arguing a balk. So even what I did was inappropriate. But nevertheless, I had to take that chance right there, because I was adamant that I thought he had balked.”
Timmy would be home-plate umpire Tim Welke, who contested that it was a clean pick-off play.  Of course he did.  Do you think he would admit it if him and the other umps all missed the balk?
According to the rulebook, rule 8.05 states that the pitcher must step directly toward the base he is throwing to.  So was it really a balk?  I’ll need to see better replays than what MLB.com is giving us to say one way or the other.
What does Carlos Pena think?

“That balk right there — it would have been great if I would have been at second base with no outs,” Pena said. “I thought I had the base easily there, but that’s the way baseball is sometimes. These guys are good out there. These umpires are really good. They are trying to do the best they can. So you can’t expect all the plays to go your way. Today, they didn’t.”
Bottom line, stop whining and play ball.  Maybe if Carlos slide head first into the bag he would have beaten the tag?  Or if he had just slid right onto the bag instead of beside it?