Few people agreed with the call that ended Thursday night’s Diamondbacks-Padres game, but Mark Grant was not among them.
With San Diego trailing 4-3 in the bottom of the ninth, with two outs and a runner on second, Jake Cronenworth threw six pitches to get to a 2-2 count before catching a 92 mph four-seam fastball from Diamondbacks closer Paul Sewald for strike three.
The only problem was that the pitch was thrown to the right of the strike zone, but everyone except home plate umpire Eric Backus seemed to be able to see that.
The punchout left play-by-play announcer Don Orsillo and his partner Grant losing their cool.
“That’s three strikes. That’s game over. That wasn’t a strike,” Orsillo said, as boos rained down on Backus.
“That’s terrible! That’s terrible! You took the bat out of a kid’s hand,” Grant interjected. “That was nowhere near enough.”
San Diego manager Mike Shildt tried to appeal the call, but it was not appealed and the ejection was not successful, while Grant continued to play.
“You’ve got to shave me,” he said.
Cronenworth echoed Grant’s sentiments when asked about the call that ended the game.
“It was a ball,” he said. “I don’t know what to say. The bat just came out of my hand at the end of the game.”
The loss put the Padres in a tough spot, tying their season-high of five straight losses at 32-34.
“I want to have a chance to finish the game the way I want to,” Shildt told reporters. “I have a lot of respect for the umpire profession and I’m not going to complain too much, but [butts] Throughout the night, we had a player at bat with a mild hip flexor sprain.
“Once again we lost and I take responsibility for that. I’m not blaming anyone, but it’s a bad way to end a game.”
