Angel Hernandez is a lightning rod and perhaps deservedly so. He’s arguably one of the most despised umpires in baseball and regularly finds himself mired in controversy, often due to undeniably bad calls.
Although Hernandez avoided his usual ball-strike criticism on Friday during a game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Washington Nationals, he still made himself a focal point.
With one out in the third inning, Hernandez ejected Cardinals pitcher Lance Lynn, who was making his first spring start. St. Louis manager Oli Marmol came out to protest the ejection but also found himself tossed.
The thin-skinned Hernandez wasn’t done there. After Lynn retreated to the bullpen to get some extra work in, Hernandez ejected him for the second time in minutes.
“He started chirping at the [Cardinals] dugout and I told him, ‘They know it was a strike.’ He told me, ‘Let’s go!’ And I told him, ‘I have five seconds on the pitch clock and I’ll start whenever I feel like it,'” Lynn said after the game via John Denton. “I threw the next pitch and I was like, ‘There’s a strike!’ And then it was ‘See you later.’
“I went and got another 20 pitches in the bullpen, so I’m in a good spot. I guess I got ejected out of play, too, technically.”
Hernandez did not address the situation following the game and appears to be in midseason form, which isn’t necessarily good for baseball.
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