Yu Darvish really got hosed by umpire Chris Segal on Wednesday night.
Darvish was facing Max Muncy to start the bottom of the second inning of Game 2 of the NLDS between his San Diego Padres and Muncy’s Los Angeles Dodgers. Darvish got Muncy down 0-2 and then threw a slow curve that froze the Dodgers slugger.
Muncy was so fooled that he did not swing at the pitch, which crossed the plate at the top of the strike zone.
Segal was fooled too, so much so that he didn’t call the pitch a strike.
Rather than Muncy going down with a strikeout looking, that pitch was called a ball, extending the at-bat. Muncy then hit two foul balls and worked a 2-2 count before homering to right field to put the Dodgers up 2-1.
That was a completely blown call by Segal that would have retired Muncy and ended the at-bat earlier. It’s not easy to strike out good hitters in the playoffs. Segal was making Darvish strike out Muncy twice in the same at-bat.
More must-reads: