Eric Hartline/USA TODAY Sports
Bad calls live on forever. Some of the most infamous examples:
- Don Denkinger in Game 6 of the 1985 World Series.
- A.J. Pierzynski’s reaching on a dropped third strike that wasn’t in ALCS Game 2 in 2005.
- Kent Hrbek’s pulling Ron Gant off first base and tagging him out in Game 2 of the ‘91 World Series.
- Derek Jeter’s game-tying homer in Game 1 of the ‘96 ALCS because of Jeffrey Maier’s fan interference that wasn’t called.
- Liván Hernández’s 15 strikeout performance, thanks to a load of generous calls, in Game 5 of the ‘97 NLCS.
These five bad officiating moments have three things in common:
- Nobody disputes that the calls were incorrect.
- They happened in the postseason.
- The team that benefited from them went on to win the World Series.
This brings us to what happened in the ninth inning of last night’s 4–2 Phillies win over the Padres in Game 3 of the NLCS. With nobody out and a runner on first, San Diego left fielder Jurickson Profar was at the plate representing the tying run, facing closer Seranthony Domíguez, going for the two-inning save. Profar worked the count full, fouled off a changeup and then stepped in for Domíguez’s seventh pitch of the plate appearance, a 98.7-mph heater running in toward his back knee cap. Within milliseconds, Profar triggered his hands to start his swing, recognized it was out of the zone, abruptly halted his swing, realized the fastball was bearing in on him and popped his hips back to avoid it. In the process, his bat head cocked forward just a bit more, enough to appear as though it had broken the inexact plane between swing and no swing. Home plate umpire Ted Barrett appealed to third base ump Todd Tichenor, who quickly punched out Profar. Livid, Profar dropped a few f-bombs at Tichenor and was ejected.
Immediately, one of the main talking points of the game became Tichenor’s call. It took Kevin Burkhardt less than 10 seconds after introducing Frank Thomas, David Ortiz and Alex Rodriguez on the FS1 postgame show to mention the Profar check swing. “And that was a really questionable check swing call on Jurickson Profar. That was dicey, but that changed the momentum…”
Rodriguez took it from there, talking a bit about Rob Thomson’s managing before bringing it back to Tichenor: “But how wonderful is baseball, the razor thin difference between Rob Thomson being a genius (as he looks today), or a goat, all comes down to Todd Tichenor’s very, very controversial call.”
Notice that neither Burkhardt or ARod said that Tichenor made the wrong call; instead, Burkhardt labeled it “questionable” and “dicey,” while ARod meandered from praising baseball to chalking the whole game up to a “very, very controversial call.” It sounds like they disagree with it, but they don’t say that outright. Maybe that’s because the call wasn’t clearly wrong. Heck, it might have even been right.
Later on, Rodriguez said his biggest complaint was that Tichenor was too quick to punch out Profar, that the umpire didn’t wait to process what had happened. That’s a fair critique. Umpires are taught to wait a beat before making a call. But that doesn’t mean Tichenor got it wrong.
The thing is, it really didn’t matter whether the call was correct. If the call had gone the other way, and the Padres had come back and won, that ruling would’ve been one of the main topics of discussion afterward. Really, except for ARod’s parenthetical assessment of Thomson, you could take the same two statements from above, from Burkhardt and ARod, and plug them into the postgame show after a hypothetical San Diego win and they would work just as well.
We all spend way too much time and energy dissecting the close calls that umpires make, and it’s not just a postseason phenomenon. Fire up Twitter on a random Tuesday night in June and you’re bound to see people furious over pitches that are just outside the superimposed box on the broadcast. We blame umpires for everything that goes wrong. That’s part of the game, and really, that’s part of the fun. Booing umpires is just as much a ballpark tradition as singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the seventh inning stretch.
This becomes a problem, though, when we start attributing the outcomes of games to the calls umpires make. Tichenor’s call was not the “razor thin difference” in the game. Sure, the Padres would’ve had momentum—which is very much a real thing in baseball, even though we can’t quantify it—but they still would’ve had to score two runs to tie the game with the bottom of their order up against a closer throwing the ball well. If the Phillies advance to the World Series, it won’t be because of an umpire’s “very, very controversial call” in Game 3. Rather, it will be because Jean Segura can somehow flip pitches nowhere near the strike zone into the outfield for run-scoring knocks, because Bryce Harper is one of the best hitters alive and because their pitchers kept a good San Diego lineup in check.
Have any questions or comments for our team? Send a note to mlb@si.com.
1. THE OPENER
Matt Rourke/AP
“No one put on a better show at Citizens Bank Park on Friday than Jean Segura.
“The Phillies second baseman seemed to know that a good performance requires a bit of texture. He pulled out all the tricks of an experienced showman: Never let the audience get comfortable. Always keep them guessing. Be willing to raise the stakes—even if it’s risky—and understand that it’s a hell of a lot more fun to be interesting than it is to be consistent.”
That’s Emma Baccellieri, writing about Segura’s chaotic game in Philly last night. HIs performance was entertaining on its own, but perhaps more fun to look at it as the Phillies’ experience in microcosm this season: error, two-run single, pickoff, diving play.
Jean Segura’s Wild Ride Takes the Phillies Within Two Wins of the World Series by Emma Baccellieri
The Philadelphia second baseman’s night was full of ups and downs. The dramatic performance was enough for the Phillies to take the series lead over the Padres.
2. ICYMI
Let’s get you caught up on some of our other recent stories.
Phillies Manager Rob Thomson Is Having One Heck of a Postseason by Tom Verducci
The 59-year-old rookie manager made all the right decisions as Philadelphia edged out the Padres for a critical NLCS Game 3 victory.
The Yankees Didn’t Lose to the Astros Because of an Open Roof by Matt Martell
Don’t be silly. New York lost because Houston was the better team.
Yankees Slip Into a Power Struggle for the Ages in ALCS by Stephanie Apstein
Down 2–0 to Houston, New York will count on Gerrit Cole to make up for its shortcomings at the plate.
3. WORTH NOTING from Matt Martell
Why has this postseason felt so exciting? In addition to the series upsets and the two extra teams, just look at the scores of the games themselves. We are 30 games into the playoffs, entering today, and 23 of them have been decided by three or fewer runs, 10 of them by two runs and nine by one run.
4. W2W4 from Matt Martell
Today is the third Saturday of the postseason, and the two previous ones each featured a marathon scoreless game. In Game 2 of the wild-card round, the Guardians beat the Rays 1–0 in 15 innings, and then last week, the Astros eliminated the Mariners with a 1–0 win in 18 innings. It would be too bold to say, watch for a 1–0 game between the Yankees and Astros that goes 21 innings today. But then again…
First up on our 21-inning tracker is the aforementioned ALCS Game 3 between New York and Houston at Yankee Stadium (5:07 p.m. ET on TBS). Gerrit Cole gets the nod to start against his old team, tasked with helping his new team avoid falling behind 3–0 in the series. The Astros send righthander Cristian Javier to the mound in place of Lance McCullers Jr., who cut his elbow celebrating Houston’s 18-inning clincher vs. Seattle last week. McCullers should be ready to get the ball tomorrow. Maybe Javier is the right man to get this 21-inning marathon going. He was Houston’s starter back on June 25 at the Stadium who pitched the first seven innings in the team’s combined no-hitter of the Yankees.
Then, it’ll be a bullpen game for the Phillies as they host the Padres in Game 4 of the NLCS (7:45 p.m. ET on FOX). Lefthander Bailey Falter (a most unfortunate last name for a pitcher in the playoffs) is the first man up for Philadelphia, with the hope that Falter can make it through the San Diego order one time before manager Rob Thomson goes to his ‘pen. The Padres turn to righthander Mike Clevinger, who had a strong first half of the season but struggled over the final two months, to even the series. Clevinger faced the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park back on May 17, his third start of the year, and went five one-hit innings, allowed no runs and struck out five in a 3–0 Padres win. So, naturally, this will be this game that inexplicably goes 21 scoreless innings, one starter who hasn’t been at his best for months against a bullpen that had the second worst ERA (5.10) in the majors during the second half. I went to college with a lot of Philly sports fans. I know a few people who will be there tonight, and I know their drinking habits. Yet I cannot comprehend how much beer they would consume over the course of 21 innings.
5. THE CLOSER from Emma Baccellieri
Brynn Anderson/AP
Much has (rightfully) been made of how Rob Thomson deployed his bullpen on Friday night—being willing to go to his best relievers early and stay aggressive with it. But I was also struck by how the Phillies manager approached the subject with Game 3 starter Ranger Suárez, who said that he felt his relatively early pull was an example of his skipper looking out for him, not trying to cut him off: “I thought he did a tremendous job,” Suárez said. “At the end of the day, he wants to protect me, too.” That’s perhaps as good a testament to Thomson’s managing as anything: Even when the calls are tough, he makes sure his players understand them.
