What more can you say about umpire Ángel Hernández at this point? His name has become a punchline among baseball fans, thanks to his reputation for being the worst ump in the majors. But his performance in Thursday‘s game between the Pirates and Nationals was a low point, even for him.
Both teams were apparently eager to get the game over with—they’re both well out of playoff contention, so it’s tough to blame them. It took only one hour and 50 minutes to play and there was a grand total of one walk issued as players showed little patience at the plate. That meant that Hernández only had to call 93 pitches that were not swung on—and he did so with alarmingly poor accuracy.
According to Umpire Scorecards, which uses data from MLB, only 65% of the pitches Hernández called strikes were actually strikes. He expanded the zone off both sides of the plate and up, leading to 12 called strikes that should have been ruled balls.
