What Is Wrong with This Sentence:

MEDICAL REPORT:  "Hanley Ramirez remained sidelined, but there is no structural damage in the shortstop's irritated right shoulder, according to a MRI exam he underwent."


       I am upset that there is no "n" after the lone "a."  True, "M" is not a vowel, and therefore, theoretically, the article "a" belongs before the consonant "M."  This is what the writer in today's L.A. Times Sports Section was no doubt thinking. 

       But this "M" is pronounced [ehm], not [m] (as in "milk"), and hence it begins with a vowel sound.  This "M" requires the added "n" after "a" before it to make the syllables felicitously pronounceable, and hence the correct word before it is "an," not "a."

       Alphabets were invented as representations of speech.  Those who write words for a living shouldn't forget it.