Is it a baseball game if umpire Angel Hernandez doesn’t steal the spotlight with an atrocious and controversial call?
That’s been a staple for Hernandez throughout his career but he seems to be taking it up a notch this season. It’s a trend that continued on Friday night during a game between the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers.
With the Rangers leading 8-1 in the top of the fourth inning and Astros pitcher J.P. France in a 2-0 hole, he found a glitch in Hernandez’s matrix. He threw a cutter well out of the zone but Hernandez called it a strike. Then he did it again. And then again.
Wyatt Langford was rung up despite all five pitches being well out of the zone.
“You have got to be kidding me!” Rangers Bally Sports Southwest play-by-play announcer Dave Raymond said. “What in the world?”
“This is just bad,” analyst Dave Valle said. “Three consecutive pitches well off the plate. . . That’s just so obvious. That was terrible.”
Langford didn’t protest but expressed obvious frustration as he headed back to the dugout.
Meanwhile, for Hernandez, this is just the latest in a long line of clearly horrible calls or no-calls. He’s routinely been the subject of furor this year dating back to spring training.
He also drew ire last week for missing a clear hit by a pitch and then again just days later when he rang Yankees infielder Gleyber Torres up on an obvious ball.
When will enough be enough for Major League Baseball? Angel Hernandez must be stopped.
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