It’s always easy to pile on Major League umpires when they miss an easy call or needlessly take over the game. It happens too often at all levels of baseball. But there are a few times when an umpire shows up to the ballpark and does the job exceptionally well.
MLB umpire Ryan Blakney had himself that kind of day in San Francisco on Sunday.
Blakney — who ranks around the middle of the pack amongst MLB umpires — was just about robotic in his performance behind the plate for the Dodgers-Giants game. According to Umpire Scorecards, Blakney accurately called 132 of the 133 taken pitches in the game.
Here is the corrected graphic for this great game by Ryan Blakney! Apologies for the appearance issues with the strike zone. pic.twitter.com/cYOFSu9eDS
— Umpire Scorecards (@UmpScorecards) June 13, 2022
His one miss was a borderline ball call to Freddie Freeman on a slider that wasn’t framed particularly well by Austin Wynns.
He was mere centimeters away from calling a perfect game behind the plate. It was that close. We’ve seen several near-perfect performances from umpires this season, including the time Pat Hoberg missed the first pitch of the game and then went perfect the rest of the way. So, perfection should be possible — even with the possibility of robot umps looming.
Still, Blakney deserves credit for a job well done. And MLB fans were ready recognize his near-perfect effort.