Author Topic: ALDS: The devilish Angel due to call Game Four pitches  (Read 593 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline EasyAce

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 10,385
  • Gender: Male
  • RIP Blue, 2012-2020---my big, gentle friend.
ALDS: The devilish Angel due to call Game Four pitches
« on: October 09, 2018, 04:51:01 pm »
By Yours Truly


Angel Hernandez---if he was a Supreme Court justice he'd likely face impeachment.

If you think Supreme Court justices lack certain accountability, meet major league baseball umpires. Their accountability is only slightly better than that conferred upon judges, to whom umpires are often compared, and not always favourably.

And there’s likely to be a swell of protest from players, coaches, managers, and fans alike if the worst case scenarios occurs Tuesday night in Yankee Stadium, when Angel Hernandez is set to call balls and strike for Game Four of the American League division series between the beasts of the American League East.

Hernandez has litigation in progress against baseball government that claims he suffers discrimination as a Latino umpire. His performance at first base in Game Three might get the case blown out of court in a heartbeat, if baseball government introduces video of the game. So might the observation of another Latino, a Hall of Fame pitcher working as a commentator on TBS’s game broadcasts.

“Angel,” said Pedro Martinez, “is as bad as there is.”

The Red Sox blew the Yankees out in Game Three, 16-1. Former Dodger, Marlin, Yankee, and Ray pitcher Nathan Eovaldi’s stout start helped. So did the friskiness of the Red Sox’s bats against a none-too-composed Yankee starter Luis Severino and the lesser lights of the Yankee bullpen, the Yankees reasonably enough not wanting to burn their best relievers while the Red Sox fired every manner of automatic weapon against them.

Evidence from Game Three shows Hernandez blew three calls at first base none of which had any direct impact upon the carnage. But he has a 75 percent rate of calls overturned by replay since the latter came into full play, and that’s well above the average 60 percent. Both the Yankees, down 2-1 in this division series, and the Red Sox have cause for alarm with Hernandez calling the pitches Tuesday night.

Here were Hernandez’s Game Three mistakes:

* Bottom of the second, the Red Sox ahead, 1-0. Yankee shortstop Didi Gregorius batted with Giancarlo Stanton board on a leadoff single. Gregorius dropped a bunt and gunned it to first. Hernandez called him safe. The Red Sox called for a review. Call overturned, Gregorius out, as indeed television replays showed, by a step. Stanton would be stranded following a pair of ground outs.

* Bottom of the third, the Red Sox now ahead, 3-0, thanks to a top of the third sacrifice fly and run-scoring ground out. Yankee second baseman Gleyber Torres grounded one to shortstop leading off. Hernandez called him out at first; replays showed he beat the play by a step or so. Call overturned. Given this break, though, the Yankees couldn’t cash in—center fielder Brett Gardner forced Torres at second; left fielder Andrew McCutchen flied out to right; and, right fielder Aaron Judge forced Gardner at second.

* Bottom of the fourth. By now, the Yankees were in a 10-0 hole, the Red Sox having a seven-run top of the fourth courtesy of a bases-loaded walk, a three-run double, an RBI single, and a two-run triple. Gregorius looked to have dialed Area Code 4-6-3 but he beat the throw to first despite Hernandez calling him out. The run scoring on the play would have stood, anyway, but the Hernandez call was reversed and Gregorius was credited with an RBI forceout, Stanton (who’d singled Luke Voit to third) bagged at second.

I repeat: Hernandez’s blown calls didn’t affect the game outcome. The Red Sox were just too much for the Yankees to handle Monday, beginning with Severino’s surrendering a pair before handing off to the bullpen in the fourth---right before the Red Sox really started going to town and back. That seven-run seventh made sure the Yankees wouldn’t incinerate their best relievers while the Olde Towne Team simply had a party at the expense of such lesser arms as Jonathan Holder and Stephen Tarpley, before Austin Romine—the Yankees’ backup catcher—took one for the team in the top of the ninth.

For the team and, alas, the history books. Romine got himself two quick infield outs before walking Red Sox second baseman Ian Kinsler. Then Brock Holt, who’d started at second before moving to first in a late game switch, caught hold of whatever Romine thought would pass for a curve ball and drove it over the right field fence, becoming the first man ever to hit for the cycle in a postseason game.

What made that more delicious was that every one of Holt’s cycle hits had something to do with their scoring. He opened the fourth with a single and scored; with the Red Sox batting around in that inning and then some, he hit the two-run triple that finished the inning’s scoring; and, he bounced an RBI ground-rule double off left center in the three-run eighth.

But both teams have reason to be edgy for Game Four. Hernandez is the first postseason umpire to have three calls overturned in a single game. According to NJ.com reporter Randy Miller, Hernandez was quoted reliably as telling Voit, the Yankees’ beefy first baseman, “I’ll get the next call right.” Well.

Will Hernandez find himself saying likewise to either team’s catcher Tuesday night? Will his facility for blown calls make more difference than a truly errant pitch or a truly devastating hit in either winning the set for the Red Sox or sending it to a fifth game to be played in Fenway Park? The last thing either Game Four starting pitcher—a pair of former Cy Young Award winners, CC Sabathia for the Yankees and Rick Porcello for the Red Sox—should think about is whether Hernandez will blow a key pitch that might be or telegraph disaster. The last thing either team’s hitters should think about is whether a blown pitch call, not their own swings, kill rallies.

The more Hernandez carries his inconsistent act forward, the more likely he is to discover his dubious enough lawsuit—baseball isn’t exactly overrun with minority umpires, but Hernandez’s controversies have little enough to do with his Cuban heritage—overturned, on review or otherwise.
-----------------------------------------------
@Polly Ticks
@Machiavelli
@AllThatJazzZ
@AmericanaPrime
@Applewood
@Bigun
@corbe
@Cyber Liberty
@DCPatriot
@dfwgator
@Freya
@GrouchoTex
@Mom MD
@musiclady
@mystery-ak
@Right_in_Virginia
@Sanguine
@Slip18
@Suppressed
@TomSea
@truth_seeker
@WarmPotato


"The question of who is right is a small one, indeed, beside the question of what is right."---Albert Jay Nock.

Fake news---news you don't like or don't want to hear.