[ad_1]
The Giants and their motley group of relievers beat Walker Buehler and the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday, 6-4, to win the season series against their rivals and regain the top spot from the NL West.
But this victory did not come without controversy. That’s thanks in large part to home plate umpire Tony Randazzo.
Dodgers and Twitter fans erupted on Sunday when Mookie Betts was called up on an inside fastball that appeared to be a ball. The “Auditor Referee” Twitter account showed that the third strike called was 2.87 inches inside, and the tally should have been 3-2 in favor of Betts. Betts’ strikeout was the second strikeout early in the ninth inning with a runner in a two-runner game.
“It sucks, but he called it,” Betts said after the Dodgers loss. “I can’t change his calling. That’s what it is.”
In reality, however, the Dodgers have actually received the better end of the stick when it comes to Randazzo’s missed calls. Truth be told, he was just as bad as he looked from a distance.
Randazzo’s overall accuracy was only 86 percent on Sunday. To put that in context, the MLB average for umpires is 94%. His overall consistency was 91% and the league average is 96%. This is where it gets frustrating for Giants fans.
With his multiple missed calls, Randazzo was in favor of the Dodgers for plus-2.42 points.
Sunday was Randazzo’s least qualifying game of the year when it comes to overall precision.
The strike zone was so everywhere that Randazzo only had 76% accuracy in the inner zone. He only correctly called 51 of the 67 “true hits”.
RELATED: Why Kapler Stuck To The Plan With Posey, Crawford vs. Dodgers
And for anyone who slammed their fists against the table for Betts’ missed appeal, it still wasn’t the worst of the night. Randazzo’s first three missed calls all came against the Giants. Two of them were against Giants reliever Camilo Doval, proving just how impressive the 24-year-old has done in a difficult situation.
This is not the first time that a referee has had a day off at the site, and it will not be the last. The truth is, that sort of umpire numbers can’t come up in such a crucial game, and it will only increase the pressure for robotic umpires and automated hitting zones.
Download and follow the Giants Talk podcast
[ad_2]
Source link