The Chicago Cubs faced off against the San Diego Padres on Monday in a game that home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi has had his fingerprints all over, which the MLB world took notice of.
Padres starting pitcher Blake Snell had a great game, recording eight strikeouts over six scoreless innings. However, his stats may look a whole lot different if Cuzzi hadn’t missed some key strike calls.
Snell had a number of strikeouts early on in the game where Cuzzi made a questionable strike-three call on Cubs batters. Three Cubs hitters were called out on strikes on pitchers that were pretty clearly outside the zone.
Phil Cuzzi is not having a good day behind the plate at Monday's Cubs vs. Padres game. Chicago manager David Ross got tossed in the second inning. pic.twitter.com/DjAguSCwP3
— The Comeback (@thecomeback) June 6, 2023
These calls clearly got to Cubs manager David Ross, who was ejected by Cuzzi for arguing the strike zone in the bottom of the second inning after Cubs pitcher Kyle Hendriks didn’t get a borderline strike call.
Before the Sanchez homer, David Ross got tossed. Some guy named Andy Green is now managing for the Cubs pic.twitter.com/nFcgQbZU6Y
— Talking Friars (@TalkingFriars) June 6, 2023
Ross seemingly had a fair gripe about the Padres getting some questionable strike calls that the Cubs didn’t equally get on the mound.
Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times tweeted the statcast view of the strike zone for the game, which shows that Snell got seven pitches outside the strike zone called as strikes. Hendriks meanwhile had only two borderline pitches called as a strike, including a few pitches in a similar spot to Snell’s.
David Ross gets tossed early. And then gives Phil Cuzzi an earful. He seemed to take issue with the consistency of his strike zone. pic.twitter.com/p4zIZouiGz
— Maddie Lee (@maddie_m_lee) June 6, 2023
The MLB world took notice of some of the favorable calls in the Padres’ favor, taking to social media to voice their frustrations.
Blake Snell's 5Ks thru 2.
[Technically, Phil Cuzzi has 3 of them.] pic.twitter.com/c1jkyPiNWV
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) June 6, 2023
Phil Cuzzi pic.twitter.com/KZd8vRGp3L
— Chief Cub (@ChiefCub) June 6, 2023
Phil Cuzzi has called balls and strikes this year more accurately than the average MLB umpire.
Do with that what you will. https://t.co/yErq0VlYZo
— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) June 6, 2023
Phil Cuzzi has been as bad as CB Bucknor or Angel Hernandez for years now. It's wild he's not discussed alongside them more
— Robert O'Neill (@RobertONeill31) June 6, 2023
I desperately want the offense to come alive and the #Cubs to win this game.
1) Because I obviously want the Cubs to win every game
2) And most importantly, becuase I want Phil Cuzzi to lose that huge bet he put on the Padres for this game.
— GlassCow (@glasscow79) June 6, 2023
Cubs fans have to feel cheated from these questionable calls from Cuzzi. However, their offensive struggles in the game certainly didn’t help matters, only recording two hits on Snell.
