An atrocious strikeout call on Ronald Acuña Jr. made another strong case for robot umps

Robot umps now.

From pace of play to promoting its stars, there’s a seemingly never-ending list of ways that baseball can improve. But the most frustrating thing about baseball has to be its stubborn commitment to justifying incorrect calls on a pitch-by-pitch basis as a mere “human element” quirk of the game.

Thankfully, there’s some movement in the right direction with “robot umpires” (or, technically, the TrackMan automated strike zone) getting used at lower levels of baseball.

But as we saw during Sunday’s game between the Braves and Phillies, robot umpires need to make its way to Major League Baseball sooner rather than later.

With umpire Brian Knight behind the plate, Braves star Ronald Acuña Jr. was called out on a ninth-inning strikeout that should have clearly been ball 4 and a walk.

The low pitch, which wasn’t even framed well, was as bad of a strike call as you’ll see from a big-league umpire not named Angel Hernandez. It changed the inning for the Braves who lost, 2-1.

Knight, in particular, was inconsistent for both teams, and Bryce Harper was visibly frustrated with the calls in multiple at-bats.

But again, it doesn’t need to be this way. It’s not an easy job to call balls and strikes, especially as pitches have more velocity and movement than ever before.

The technology is there. Use it, MLB.

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