Juan Soto threw six pitches, zero strikes, zero swings, and one strikeout.
That is the current state of MLB refereeing in 2024.
Even though he couldn’t find a single strike from Oakland’s Paul Blackburn in the fifth inning of the Yankees’ 4-3 win over the Athletics on Tuesday, umpire John Tampain had an elite eye. When I launched Soto, which is known for , it formed a particularly bad zone. zone.
All six of Blackburn’s pitches should have been ruled balls — at most one might have been questionable — but Tampane ruled half of them missed the zone.
Soto even thought he issued a walk after the fifth pitch, and appeared frustrated as he threw his bat into the air during his at-bat after being called for a borderline pitch.
“So Juan Soto didn’t see a strike in that at-bat,” Yankees announcer Ryan Ruocco said.
This sequence of events only heightens the need for robot umpires, as Tampane clearly missed the call and Soto lost his chance to get on base.
And it came a day after Yankees manager Aaron Boone was ejected from a game in the first inning after home plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt mistook a fan’s jeer for the manager.
The Yankees were leading 4-2 at that point, and when Soto walked at bat with two outs and no outs and the bases loaded, Blackburn missed the bat on his first two pitches.
And that’s when the amp show took over.
As shown in the boxes on both MLB.com and Baseball Savant, the 2-0 offer missed the zone, but Tampane ruled the 81 mph slider a strike.
“I know that’s called a strike and Soto was probably off,” Ruocco said.
Blackburn then made another mistake before making the worst call of his at-bat.
The right-hander’s 92 mph fastball clearly missed the zone and almost started flying toward first base, but Tampane ruled that the ball hit the zone.
“Cole came off the plate and it was 3-2,” Ruocco said.
John Flaherty responded, “That’s not a strike.”
The zone on MLB.com and Baseball Savant showed the tip of the ball hitting the zone, but the box on Yes Network showed the ball hitting the bottom of the zone, so the 3-2 offer You could argue that is borderline.
Soto casually tossed his bat in the air before taking off his gloves, seemingly wondering how he had gotten hit with what could be his 20th walk in 24 games.
The right fielder ranks third in MLB in walks and has an on-base percentage of .432, the best in the AL, showing he knows the zone better than anyone.
But Tampane showed that sometimes that doesn’t matter.
