Eduardo Rodriguez is lucky he didn’t need umpire Greg Gibson to call a sharp game behind the plate in order to mow down the lowly Orioles on Sunday. That’s because Gibson was awful.
MLB’s umpiring has been horrible for years, but this season might be the worst on record.
The best thing you can say about Gibson’s performance is that he was dreadful for both teams, so neither side enjoyed a real competitive advantage. Gibson’s penchant for equal opportunity offenses was on full display in the bottom of the sixth inning, when Alex Verdugo faced off against Baltimore reliever (and forgettable Red Sox hurler) Fernando Abad.
Gibson’s first egregious miscall came on Abad’s 2-0 offering — a breaking ball that missed the outer half of the plate. However, Gibson called a “strike,” prompting Verdugo to briefly question him.
While it’s frustrating to see umpires clearly miss calls, expanding the strike zone on hitter’s counts is one of baseball’s long-held traditions. It’s part of the nearly extinct human’s element, which seems a bit more romantic these days -- except when the calls go against your team.
With that in mind, one might expect Gibson would’ve be more favorable towards the pitcher, but that is an incorrect assumption. Verdugo’s at-bat ended in a walk … on a fastball that was over the plate.
@redsoxstats captured the madness on Twitter.
Umpiring pic.twitter.com/z5Y9d6Oha4
— Red Sox Stats (@redsoxstats) August 15, 2021
Later, @redsoxstats shared the strike zone chart for both teams, and it isn’t pretty. My trusted eyes tell me Orioles pitches were granted slightly more breaks than Red Sox hurlers, with numerous pitches off the inside corner being called for strikes. (The Red Sox still managed to win by a score of 6-2.)
This afternoon's strike zone pic.twitter.com/TvZWL8lYQP
— Red Sox Stats (@redsoxstats) August 16, 2021
For years, instant replay and pitch-tracking technology have exposed bad umpiring to unprecedented degrees, so it’s hard to determine whether umpires are getting worse. Back in the day, people only fixated on officiating errors when they swayed the outcome of an important game, such as umpire Don Denkinger signaling “safe” in Game 7 of the 1985 World Series.
Nearly 40 years later, we mercifully have the technology to correct mishaps. As we’ve seen with MLB’s “challenge” rules, the technology could be abused, so the league would be wise to put limitations on its use. But still, there must be a happy medium between reviewing every close play at first base, and dealing with an ever-changing strike zone.
Gibson's umpire scoreboard reflects his inaccuracy, noting there were 20 missed ball and strike calls at home plate. But an overall consistency of 92 percent?
Numbers can be deceiving.
