Major League Baseball umpire Ángel Hernández is famous around the league for all the wrong reasons as he’s become notorious in the MLB world for his egregious blown calls. Unfortunately, Hernández was at it again during Sunday Night Baseball’s game between the San Diego Padres and the New York Mets.
At the top of the sixth inning in a 0-0 game with no outs, Padres third baseman Manny Machado was hit by a pitch and was on his way to first base when Hernández, the first-base umpire, ruled that Machado swung at the pitch on an 0-2 count, making it a strikeout instead of a free base.
Naturally, Machado was furious at the call.
Machado not happy Angel Hernandez rung him up pic.twitter.com/yKCXaLn8AJ
— Starting 9 (@Starting9) July 25, 2022
Naturally, the MLB world had a pretty strong reaction to the call, with many suggesting that Hernández should no longer have a job and that the league should know better than to put the notoriously controversial umpire on for a nationally televised game.
THIS is the problem with Angel. In addition to being insanely inconsistent and bad, he's ALWAYS dying to insert himself into an event by making shit up. Machado was NOWHERE NEAR going around. https://t.co/HlWZ59jCgd
— Curt Schilling (@gehrig38) July 25, 2022
Why MLB keeps putting their worst ump by far on Nationally Televised games is an embarrassment, but the NHL used to do the same with Richard Trottier. Here Hernandez changed a right call to a wrong one and it wasn't even close. https://t.co/wd1y4SCuIO
— Paul Hamilton (@pham1717) July 25, 2022
Fire him into the sun and deal with the lawsuits after @MLB https://t.co/ZEgFMYUlri
— Dennis M. Esser (@coachesser) July 25, 2022
However, there were also many who believed Hernández actually made the correct call in this situation, while also acknowledging that the umpire is notorious for his blown calls.
Angel Hernandez on top of everything folks pic.twitter.com/xrtuRwn60L
— We Gotta Believe (@GottaBelievePod) July 25, 2022
Angel Hernandez made an actual good call but my instinct was that he blew another call.
(Manny should stop hitting the bench with his hand)
— Herb Lawrence (@Ecnerwal23) July 25, 2022
Manny Machado swings at a pitch that hit him, and gets mad at Angel Hernandez for actually getting something right pic.twitter.com/VjFiBlPT5x
— BetOnline.ag (@betonline_ag) July 25, 2022
Even when he makes the right call, someone's gonna disagree with Ángel Hernández.pic.twitter.com/JMnUxFMiyP
— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) July 25, 2022
Whether the call was correct or not, Hernández once again found himself as the talking point of the MLB world on Sunday night. Even when some agree that he made the correct call, he’s still one of the most controversial figures in the league.
