NEWSLETTER
With Joe West retired, Angel Hernandez has become the symbol of umpire incompetence. Sure, there are others in the conversation with him — C.B. Bucknor immediately comes to mind (also Laz Diaz, Andy Fletcher, and Chad Fairchild) — but Angel Hernandez is the guy to beat. And last night, he was up to all his usually tricks.
Angel Hernandez … What Are You Doing?
No one likes when umpires center themselves in the drama – including umpires – but that’s pretty unavoidable when you make three straight horrendous strike calls with the bases loaded. Especially because each call – and especially strike 3 – is literally worse than the last.
** NEW UMPIRE AUDITOR RECORD **
Umpire Angel Hernandez rang up Wyatt Langford on three consecutive pitches out of the zone.
The strikeout pitch missed outside by 6.78 inches.
This was the largest miss on a called strikeout in Umpire Auditor history. pic.twitter.com/BWmizkDsmD— Umpire Auditor (@UmpireAuditor) April 13, 2024
That clip was shared by the Umpire Auditor account, which has been around for a decade. And according to them, that final pitch missed the strikezone by 6.78 inches – the largest miss on a called strikeout in Umpire Auditor history. Incredible.
Let’s take a closer look at just how badly they all (but especially that last one) missed:
You can fit the freakin’ grand canyon between the strikezone and pitch 5. But don’t let that blind you to how badly the first two misses were either. This is just really bad stuff from an umpire whose name comes up way too frequently.
As a matter of fact, I saw the strikezone calls come up before I knew which umpire it was, and immediately guessed Angel Hernandez. I sent a screenshot to Brett, and he had the same reaction (with bonus C.B.):
UPDATE: The umpire scorecard is out, and hooooo boy. This is bad. +1.79 runs in favor of the Astros.
