There are bad strike calls. Then there’s what happened to the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday night.
Toronto got hosed left and right at the plate in its matchup with the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday. At least, that’s how hitting coach Guillermo Martinez saw it. So, on Wednesday, prior to the game, Martinez took matters into his own hands.
Martinez opted to bring the lineup card to home plate prior to the game. That distinction is usually reserved for the team’s manager. Nevertheless, Martinez proceeded to shake hands with each umpire, including Doug Eddings, who manned the home plate on Tuesday. Martinez gave Eddings an earful regarding his paltry performance. Eventually, he was tossed by Phil Cuzzi, Wednesday’s home plate umpire, before a pitch had even been thrown. It made for absolutely riveting television.
Guillermo Martínez was ejected during the lineup card exchange before today’s game. #NextLevel | @BlueJays pic.twitter.com/MCnd6O8kzQ
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) June 22, 2022
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Martinez joins the handful of managers, coaches and players to ever be ejected before a game has even started. But the frustration appeared to be at least somewhat warranted, especially when considering just how absurd some of Eddings’ strike calls were on Tuesday.
It’s not as if Martinez’s objections came out of left field, so to speak.
According to Umpire Scorecards, Eddings had a called strike accuracy of 64 percent. That’s 24 percent worse than the league average.
Umpire: Doug Eddings
Final in 12: Blue Jays 6, White Sox 7#NextLevel // #ChangeTheGame#TORvsCWS // #CWSvsTOR pic.twitter.com/xF7KTGcGQi— Umpire Scorecards (@UmpScorecards) June 22, 2022
Toronto appeared to suffer the worst damage. Take Santiago Espinal, the Blue Jays talented second baseman. Espinal received a called strike on nine pitches that looked outside the zone, according to Statcast. It’s no wonder why so many are dreaming of a future with robo-umpires.
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Santiago Espinal took a ride on the umpjob machine pic.twitter.com/J7obIGzPKp
— Welcome to the Ump Show (@umpjob) June 22, 2022
*NEW SEASON HIGH*
Umpire Doug Eddings missed a season high 29 calls in the #BlueJays #WhiteSox game for a correct call rate of 86.2%. This included 6 blown strikeouts. pic.twitter.com/UljFJn2I1A
— Umpire Auditor (@UmpireAuditor) June 22, 2022
The Blue Jays dropped Tuesday’s game, 7-6, in extra innings. They now sit just half a game up on the surging Boston Red Sox. Perhaps if some of those calls went their way, the result of the game would change. Either way, one thing was clear on Wednesday: Guillermo Martinez was not a happy man. And he just had to let the umpire crew know and become the martyr the Blue Jays needed. Toronto won Wednesday’s matinee 9-5.
