Perhaps Major League Baseball needs an automated strike zone sooner than later.
Atlanta Braves outfielder Marcell Ozuna fell victim to the human error aspect of the game on Wednesday when he struck out looking at three straight pitches that were all out of the zone while facing Mets right-hander Tylor Megill in the fourth inning.
The first pitch was a tad low and could be argued as borderline, but the second pitch was way outside and the third pitch was not only outside but also might have been low.
Ozuna had a few words for the home plate umpire at the end of the at-bat, and the Braves announcers were quite perplexed, too.
Perhaps Mets catcher Josh McCann deserves some credit for pitch framing, an art that would be lost with an automated strike zone.
Or maybe it’s just another instance of questionable umpiring around the league. Two weeks ago, Angel Hernandez was highly criticized for his strike zone in the Phillies-Brewers Sunday Night Baseball game, which Kyle Schwarber was ejected from for vehemently arguing in the ninth inning.
Hernandez’s game score from MLB was a 96%, though, because the league apparently has a two-inch buffer zone.
An automated ball-strike system is currently being experimented with at the Low-A level in the minors, so we still may be some time away before we see any sort of radical change to umpiring or the strike zone at the major-league level.
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