On the long, long list of bad Angel Hernandez calls that we’ve seen over the years, this one was far from the worst. Heck, it might have even been … the right one?
But it still made Manny Machado mad, and that’s noteworthy.
Here’s the situation from Sunday’s eventual New York Mets win over the San Diego Padres: In the sixth inning, Drew Smith threw a pitch that came inside on Machado. As he took what might have been a check swing — the ball hit him in the elbow. The home plate umpire sent him to first … but the call from the first-base ump was that he swung. And that meant it was strike three.
That first base ump? You guessed it. Angel Hernandez. But I actually think he might have gotten the call right?
Machado was then seen in the dugout smashing something, pretty heated at the call: