(Audacy) In a press conference last week, commissioner Rob Manfred characterized the Florida State League’s experiment of allowing managers to challenge ball-strike calls as a success so far, suggesting MLB may be close to adopting a similar rule. That could have come in handy Tuesday night at Guaranteed Rate Field, where Doug Eddings blew an inexplicable 29 calls behind home plate in the White Sox's 7-6 win against the Blue Jays in 12 innings. The 29 missed calls were by easily the most by an umpire this season.
Eddings has never been a pillar of consistency — he ranks 76th out of 92 umpires in accuracy in 2022. But even by his relatively low standards, Tuesday was an utter catastrophe, with six strikeouts called the wrong way. This rap sheet of blown calls reads like the footnotes of a David Foster Wallace novel.
Now in his 25th MLB season, Eddings delivered a masterclass in how not to call a game, frustrating hitters with his generous strike zone while giving pitchers an extra few inches — and sometimes up to a foot — of leeway. Eddings was right on just 86.2% of his calls, well below his season average (92.6%), according to Umpire Auditor.
The argument for an automated ball-strike system (ABS), which is already in use at certain levels of the minor leagues, has never been stronger with umpires missing calls in key moments and websites and social media accounts like Umpire Auditor and Umpire Scoreboards holding them accountable with improved technology showing the error of their ways.
If Eddings was in a hurry Tuesday, his plan backfired spectacularly with Chicago and Toronto playing deep into the night, with the game finally ending with White Sox infielder Josh Harrison’s walk-off single in the 12th inning. That moved the White Sox back to .500 (33-33) for the first time since May 29.
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