No one is claiming that the job of an MLB umpire is an easy one. But there comes a point where you have to raise an eyebrow when one ump's name comes up again and again... and again and again in stories that aren't simply titled something along the lines of "Umpire does great job at calling a baseball game."
Those usually aren't the headlines associated with longtime umpire Angel Hernandez, who has accumulated 27 years of service time in Major League Baseball and who still seems to always be trending on Twitter for the wrong reasons. Indians skipper Terry Francona may have said it best after an incident that went down last night, when he simply asked Hernandez, "Why's it always happening when you're here?"
Oh, boy. What could have happened this time?
With runners on second and third, a deep fly ball off the bat of Royals catcher Salvador Perez landed squarely between Cleveland center fielder Harold Ramirez and right fielder Josh Naylor at the warning track. Again, it "landed," as in it hit the ground and was not caught by either Ramirez or Naylor. However, Hernandez signaled that the ball had been caught... but more on that later. Andrew Benintendi, the second base runner, was then told to return to second by Vance Wilson, due to the fact that Wilson saw Hernandez make an "out" signal. Benintendi did not get back to the bag in time before the "force out" was made, which didn't end up being an out at all, because the whole thing was just wrong. Got all that?
A shorter, not-so-confusing version: Hernandez said that the ball was caught when it was not, and chaos ensued. A Jomboy breakdown, as always, is helpful to watch as well. Here's what happened from the perspective of Hernandez, and you actually can understand why he had to make a snap judgment of whether or not the ball had been caught considering he really couldn't make out what happened. It's not all that easy to see — you can tell from a picture.
"Our goal was to get the play right, and that’s exactly what we did," Hernandez told a reporter (via Lynn Worthy of The Kansas City Star). "We talk about this. Replay is an extension of what we do out there. As you saw, I got basically blinded by the outfield scoreboard. The pixels on the lights were as clear as white can be. I was trying to make out what happened out there.
"The harder I looked, the less I could see. So I was trying to read the players to see what they did with the ball. And I had to come out with the call. I basically guessed on the wrong call. So as soon as I turned around, (home plate umpire) Edwin (Moscoso) started walking towards me. We got the crew together. And we fixed the problem."
Their way of fixing the problem was to award Benintendi third base, due to the fact that he was only stuck in that jam because he was responding to Hernandez. It was a play that Royals manager Mike Matheny said was confusing, but that led to his team scoring a run and runners on base in what were deemed appropriate locations. Francona was not as understanding, especially in the sense that he felt the "blinded by the scoreboard" phenomenon wasn't one that anyone else experienced.
“We knew it wasn’t a catch,” Francona said. “Everybody I think knew it but Angel.
"They said they put him where they thought he would have been... I’ve got to look at the rule. If the baserunner doesn’t actually attempt to get there, I’m not sure how you give him that base. But I was so mad at him that I didn’t even bring that up, and it probably wouldn’t have mattered."
Ultimately, it didn't matter. Benintendi was left stranded at third and Cleveland went on to win by a score of 7-3. But — and I always hearken back to this hypothetical in stories like these — what if it had been a game-deciding call? What's the fallout then? Hopefully, we won't have to find out.
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