Yesterday Mariano Rivera record his 16th save of the season. The final out was a strikeout of Michael Morse. No one confuses Morse for an elite hitter, but the need to review the final strike call is glaring. It wasn’t close. I know humans aren’t perfect and they get graded and all, but it’s just a bad call to end a game. And then the umpire, Jerry Layne, did his little strike out dance. Is this really necessary. Does an NFL referee add a little stank to his offsides call? Be a professional, audibly say strike three, maybe make a fist to indicate out and walk off the field. Below is the pitch chart.
The worst is that the pitch is right next to a called ball. 98% accuracy is fine when the misses are close. I’m not sure exactly how the umpires are graded but the misses should be weighted by distance from zone. A call missed by an inch isn’t as bad as one missed by 6 inches. Abtter should protect the plate and probably swing at a close one. But no one can reasonably expect Morse to swing at a pitch like that. (unless he is fooled, which he is a decent amount) To top it all off, Fayne does his strikeout dance to end the game. Not quite an #umpshow, but combined with the bad call, it’s horrible.
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