Tag: Bad umpires

A college baseball player was ridiculously ejected for a bat flip after game-tying grand slam

This was an absurd ejection by the umpire after a hype moment.

Hitting a game-tying grand slam is an event that should be cause for massive celebration. According to one college baseball umpire, however, it lead to an ejection instead.

On Sunday, Grand Canyon was playing Nebraska to close out their early-season series against one another. Nebraska won two of three games played, with Grand Canyon looking to tie the series Sunday afternoon. However, Grand Canyon was down 8-4 entering the bottom of the fifth and needed a big offensive half inning to get back into it.

With the bases loaded and no outs, Tyler Wilson delivered for Grand Canyon with a towering shot to right field for a game-tying grand slam. However, as Wilson approached home plate, the umpire motioned his way and suddenly ejected him. Why? Because Wilson threw his bat in the air after the ball cleared the outfield fence.

That’s a pretty innocuous bat flip, all things considered. Wilson didn’t even break stride or trot as he did it!

It’s still early in the baseball calendar but add this one to the bad umpires tally.

Stats (and the eye test) show World Series umpire had a horrendous Game 3

Alfonso Marquez had a BAD game.

It was a World Series game that had MLB fans once again calling for robot umps.

In Game 3, with the Texas Rangers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks in a tight 3-1 victory, home plate umpire Alfonso Marquez had a rough game. Per @UmpireAuditor, he got 89.9 percent of his calls correct, which isn’t great.

Video, as you’ll see below, shows a blatant strike that was called a ball, and some outside pitches called strikes, much to everyone’s consternation, including the hitters involved.

We have seen some not good umpiring in these playoffs and this is just another one to add to the list:

In shocking twist, an umpire called a worse game than Angel Hernandez in NLCS Game 3

Not good at all.

MLB Twitter (X, whatever) is fond of ripping on umpire Angel Hernandez, particularly when he’s behind the plate calling balls and strikes. It’s taken on a life of its own.

But thanks to @UmpireAuditor, we know something: That Dan Iassogna — he’s gotten plenty of grief for calls too — had a worse game than Hernandez did this season in Thursday’s Philadelphia Phillies and Arizona Diamondbacks NLCS contest.

According to their metrics, he made the right call 89.3 percent of the time in Game 3. Yuck.

@UmpScorecards had him at 91 percent, which is a little better, but still. Not great!

Here are some of the lowlights and some grades:

MLB fans were so unsurprised to hear that Angel Hernandez was 2023’s worst umpire

Imagine being this bad at a job and keeping that job …

Baseball’s regular season came to an end on Sunday, and when the league announced the umpiring assignments on Monday for the wild-card matchups, fans easily noticed a missing name among the 24 umpires.

Angel Hernandez did not receive a postseason assignment yet again, likely bringing an end to a shortened year of work for the embattled umpire. Hernandez worked one game at first base to start the season and then missed time up until August with a back injury.

When Hernandez made his return to work behind the plate, he managed to become baseball’s worst statistical umpire in just 10 games. Literally.

According to Umpire Auditor, no big-league umpire who worked a minimum of 10 games performed worse behind the plate in the 2023 season. Umpire Scorecard measured a similar result with Hernandez ranking last among umpires in ball-strike accuracy at 92 percent overall with a minimum 10 games.

And that doesn’t even take into account his rough moments at base assignments this season. The two months couldn’t have gone much worse for Hernandez, and fans were totally unsurprised to see him rank dead last.

Bryce Harper went off on Angel Hernandez and was ejected after being totally correct

Bryce Harper was totally in the right here!

Another week, another Angel Hernandez special and Bryce Harper wasn’t having it.

On Thursday, the Philadelphia Phillies were hosting the Pittsburgh Pirates as the 2023 MLB regular season enters its final days. The Phillies recently clinched the first wild card spot in the National League, with the team looking to get back to the World Series off of bats like Harper’s.

In the bottom of the third, with one out and no one on, Harper was faced with a full count. Harper made a check swing on a ball low and away and was called out on strikes after the home plate umpire checked with Hernandez at third. Harper was absolutely livid after the call, as he went off on Hernandez and earned himself an ejection in the process, throwing his batting helmet to the Phillies crowd on his way out.

That’s definitely not a swing. Let’s see it from the other angle, shall we?

Not even close! We’ve seen a lot of Hernandez gems either in the field or behind home plate this season, but this one is especially egregious.

Here’s how MLB fans reacted after Harper was ejected for being totally right on this terrible Hernandez call.

Mics picked up umpire Phil Cuzzi’s NSFW comeback before ejecting Astros hitting coach Alex Cintrón

So, it’s OK when umpires curse at coaches?

Longtime MLB umpire Phil Cuzzi is one of those umps who can bring unnecessary drama to games. In terms of calling balls and strikes, he’s about middle of the pack this season. But you’ll notice how he has very little tolerance for arguments from the dugout.

On Tuesday, he had a fiery response of his own to Astros hitting coach Alex Cintrón, and we heard all of it.

In the sixth inning of Houston’s game against the Orioles, Cintrón took exception with a first-pitch strike call to Jose Abreu. Now, Cuzzi did miss the call — the ball was high out of the zone. But Cuzzi couldn’t help but go in a back and forth over the pitch with Cintrón.

That led to this ejection that was picked up on the broadcast mics. (Warning: NSFW language)

We could hear as Cintrón said “(expletive) you” to Cuzzi, which is always an automatic ejection. But Cuzzi took the actual tossing to a new level when he responded with, “(expletive) me? (expletive) you!”

As far as mic’d-up moments go, it’ll be tough to top that one — though you’d like to see an umpire have more restraint there. Fans also had thoughts on the theatrics.

The Pirates’ Ke’Bryan Hayes called out umpire Bill Miller after a horrific call led to a strikeout

This was a terrible call and Ke’Bryan Hayes had every right to be upset.

There have been a lot of bad calls in baseball this year, from terrible strikeouts to umpires forgetting to reset the pitch clock and misremembering the count. And now, add this 3-1 strike call from umpire Bill Miller to the running tally of dreadful missteps this season.

On Sunday, Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes was facing Atlanta Braves pitcher A.J. Minter in the top of the eighth inning, with the home team holding a 5-2 lead. On the 3-1 count, it seemed as if Hayes was set to go to first on a walk thanks to a ball outside the zone. However, Miller called it a strike, keeping Hayes in the batter’s box on a pitch that was definitely not a strike.

See for yourself!

Not only that, the missed 3-1 strike call led to Hayes striking out mere moments later, ending the inning for the Pirates and cutting off any chance of an eighth inning comeback.

After the game, Hayes took to Twitter to express his frustrations with Miller’s call, even stating that the umpire brushed off his attempts to hold him accountable.

We wouldn’t be surprised to see a fine tossed Hayes’ way for his candid comments about Miller’s call and umpires as a whole. MLB fans, on the other hand, appreciated how honest Hayes was in his assessment of Miller’s call.

MLB fans couldn’t believe how badly this umpire whiffed on a Justin Turner strike out

This umpire completely whiffed on this strike call.

Boston Red Sox third baseman Justin Turner fell victim to one of the most brutal bad strikes you’re likely to see this season.

While fielding pitches from Washington Nationals ace Luis García during a Tuesday evening tilt in D.C., Turner got struck out on a pitch that landed well outside the strike zone. It was so outside the zone Turner wisely didn’t even bother to swing at it because it was such an easy decision to hold the bat.

Turner looked on in disbelief on the bizarre strike, which not even the Nationals broadcast crew thought was a good call by the umpire.

When you can’t even win over the opposing team’s broadcasting team, you know the strike call really didn’t go how it should’ve.

This really should’ve been called a ball, making this a deeply frustrating moment for Turner, who should’ve gotten another swing, and all the Red Sox fans at home.

While no umpire is perfect, some calls just don’t sit right. This in no way should’ve been a strike, and MLB fans felt the same way.

Phillies fans were furious after ump’s terrible strikeout call cost team a run with bases loaded

This strike out may have changed the game for the Phillies.

The Philadelphia Phillies faithful have every right to be mad at umpire Alex MacKay for this call that cost the team a run.

On Sunday, the Phillies were down 2-0 to the Minnesota Twins, but had the bases loaded with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. Alec Bohm was facing a 3-2 count, with a walk set to score a run and cut the deficit in half.

Instead, however, Bohm was rung up looking on a called strike that was well inside. Bohm couldn’t believe the call as he spiked his bat in frustration after MacKay rung him up and the home Phillies crowd was instantly irate.

Here’s how the play went down.

That’s … not a strike.

An inning later, Phillies manager Rob Thomson was ejected after Bryce Harper was called out on strikes on a pitch that missed the outside corner.

Phillies fans noted that MacKay was a call-up umpire for this game and were not happy with his performance in a crucial rubber match. Here’s how Phillies fans reacted on Twitter after Bohm struck out looking with the bases loaded on a terrible call.

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Ángel Hernández botched an easy stolen base out and MLB fans ripped his terrible call

The call was eventually overturned, but it was still very bad!

Ángel Hernández’s first week back in Major League Baseball play could be going better.

Earlier this season, MLB fans noticed that Hernández — likely the most unpopular umpire in baseball for his frequent horrible calls — hadn’t been working games. Major League Umpires director Randy Marsh told For The Win that Hernández’s absence was due to a “medical matter” and it was only recently that the umpire had been spotted working minor league games.

On Monday, Hernández was back on the field at the MLB level, this time holding court as the second base umpire for the evening’s Washington Nationals and Milwaukee Brewers contest. During the fifth inning, Nationals outfielder Alex Call made an attempt to steal second but was tagged by Brewers shortstop Willy Adames.

Inexplicably, Hernández made the call that Call was safe, but replay showed that Adames clearly tagged his man before he got anywhere close to the base.

Thankfully, the Brewers challenged the play and it was overturned, but what a mess. Definitely not the way Hernández wanted to kick off his return to MLB play, that’s for sure.

MLB fans, however, ripped Hernández for his terrible call on what should have been an easy out made right then and there.