Every pitch matters for the Toronto Blue Jays right now as they look to maintain their tenuous hold on a wild-card spot in the American League playoff race.
So when a pair of calls are blatantly missed in the ninth inning of a tight affair, it stings even more than usual. With the Blue Jays mounting a late comeback in Monday’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays, home plate umpire Ron Kulpa took over.
First, with Teoscar Hernandez at the dish representing the tying run in a 6-4 contest, Kulpa completely swung the at-bat by calling Pitch 4 a strike:
Instead of being in a 3-1 count, Hernandez was staring down a 2-2 situation and struck out two pitches later.
Then, with the bases loaded and the score still 6-4, Breyvic Valera stepped to the plate and quickly worked himself into a 3-0 count. After taking a borderline strike at the top of the zone, he was left baffled when Pitch 5 was also called in the pitcher’s favour:
Instead of an RBI walk to make it 6-5, Valera ended up striking out to end the threat and trim the Blue Jays’ wild-card cushion to just a half game over the New York Yankees.
As expected, Blue Jays fans flocked to social media to express their outrage over Kulpa’s game-altering calls.
At least the bad calls went both ways, right? Nope.
The debacle just added fuel to the fire for those looking to bring in robot umpires at the MLB level. Alek Manoah’s bizarre idea for improving strike-zone consistency is also starting to sound pretty good right about now.
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