White Sox on winning end of one of the worst-called games in 2022 originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
The White Sox outlasted the Blue Jays in 12 innings for a 7-6 victory on Tuesday night.
And they were aided in their winning effort by one of the worst performances from a home-plate umpire this season.
Doug Eddings was behind the dish at Guaranteed Rate Field and missed a staggering 26 ball-strike calls, according to Umpire Scorecards. The 26 missed calls were the most in any MLB game this season, topping Jeff Nelson’s 22 in the Oakland A’s 7-5 victory on April 16, which coincidentally was also against the Blue Jays). Eddings had a correct call accuracy of 88.6%, tied for 25th-worst in 2022.
While Eddings made bad calls for both teams, his brutal showing ultimately wound up working in the Sox’s favor. Eddings had a total run impact score of 5.89, per Umpire Scorecards, by far the highest in MLB this season. His calls had a run expectancy impact of minus-3.79 for Toronto and minus-1.76 for Chicago, giving the Sox a plus-2.03 edge.
The Blue Jays were on the wrong end of two of his three most impactful bad calls. The biggest missed call of the night by run expectancy impact came in the top of the eighth, when Eddings rang up Santiago Espinal on a 3-2 count with the bases loaded. Toronto should have scored at least one more run, but instead, the top half of the frame ended on the strikeout.
The Blue Jays could have used that extra insurance run too, as Chicago rallied for two runs in the bottom of the ninth to force extras.
Eddings’ second-biggest missed call was at the expense of the Sox in the bottom of the 12th. Facing a full count with one out, Reese McGuire was rung up on a pitch that should have been ball-four.
But Chicago was able to overcome the bad call, with Josh Harrison recording the game-winning RBI single in the next at-bat.
Eddings struggled particularly with pitches outside the zone, as 25 of his missed calls were called strikes that should have been balls. So the veteran ump will need to tighten up his strike zone a bit his next time out.