There’s the debate about whether or not humans should continue calling balls and strikes, seeing as how we now have technology capable of doing a more accurate job of it.
But there’s one thing we can all agree on- while humans are calling balls and strikes, there are many people that should not be involved in calling balls and strikes.
Veteran umpire Angel Hernandez is one of those people, and during Tuesday night’s Yankees-Blue Jays game in Toronto, he showed why.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Masahiro Tanaka threw a pitch right down the middle to Toronto’s Randal Grichuk, which apparently meant “Ball One” to Hernandez.
Angel Hernandez is just awful. Awful! pic.twitter.com/PyPHLlA5Jc
— Max Wildstein (@MaxWildstein) June 5, 2019
Angel Hernandez called pitch #2 a ball. pic.twitter.com/jPAEWQ9iom
— Mike Nash (@MikeNash15) June 5, 2019
This may have literally been a game-changing pitch. Grichuk should’ve had an 0-2 count,which would’ve been highly in Tanaka’s favor. Sure, the way catcher Gary Sanchez received the ball may have thrown Hernandez off a bit, but that pitch is clearly in the strike zone. Presentation and framing from the catcher shouldn’t make *that* big of a difference on perceiving that particular pitch.
Well, the missed strike call made it a 1-1 count, and Grichuk proceeded to crank a solo homer on the very next pitch. That began a four-run inning for the Blue Jays, and that was the difference in a 4-3 Toronto victory. Even the Blue Jays’ Twitter account mocked how the inning went.
*Drake Voice*
Turned that 0-2 into a…nvm 😅 #LetsGoBlueJays pic.twitter.com/mv7fCs2oyO
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) June 5, 2019
And it wasn’t just one bad strike call in the inning from Hernandez. He seemed to miss four strike calls:
RT to spread the word! This HAS to be the final time we see Angel Hernandez. There is something clearly wrong here, @MLB.
Four missed strike calls in ONE INNING! Two of them were right down the middle! pic.twitter.com/M8QL0pAFZ7
— Kyle ⚾️ (@KyleNYY) June 5, 2019
This is nothing new from Hernandez, or CB Bucknor, or Joe West. But they somehow continue to keep their jobs.
Angel Hernandez has a long history of bad calls behind the plate and the MLB does… Nothing. Calls like this push me more and more towards taking the umpire out of the ball/strike game and just letting the computer make the call. At least, they should allow a challenge on calls like this perhaps with a one ball or one strike penalty to the team that challenges (as appropriate) if they get the challenge wrong.