The Yankees came completely undone in a nightmare eighth inning against the Astros on Wednesday night, and some players weren’t shy about their thoughts on the umpiring playing a major role in that disastrous frame.
Tied at 4-4 after Luke Weaver coughed up the tying run in the seventh, Devin Williams came on in the eighth and immediately ran into trouble when Carlos Correa led off with a double down the right field line. Williams’ issue with home plate umpire Brian Walsh then took center stage after the righty walked Jesus Sanchez after clearly taking issue with two calls that Williams believed should have been strikes.
The frustration with Walsh was far from over.
A walk sandwiched between two strikeouts loaded the bases, with Williams needing to retire the ninth hitter in Taylor Trammel to escape the rally unscathed. But a 2-0 pitch that seemed to clip the inside corner was ruled a ball, and Trammel eventually walked to force in the go-ahead run.
Williams had some words for Walsh as he was taken out of the game, and was promptly tossed. Aaron Boone wound up being ejected as well.
“When you’re making good pitches, which I was, not getting those calls really changes the course of an at-bat,” Williams said after the game. “Correa hit the double, so I had my back against the wall right away. Made some really good pitches to Sanchez, which he missed two in that at-bat.”
Williams told reporters that he looked at the replay of those close pitches after his outing, and believes Walsh missed those calls.
Boone credited the Astros for battling in the eighth, but also noted that the strike zone seemed “a little inconsistent.”
According to the X account Umpire Auditor, which tracks umpire performance, Walsh missed 21 calls in the game, an 8-7 loss for the Yankees, and 15 went against New York.
Catcher Austin Wells agreed that the strike zone was “inconsistent,” which became a talking point again in the ninth with Jazz Chisholm representing the tying run after a Cody Bellinger three-run homer.
Chisholm worked the count full and watched a pitch go by that seemed outside, believing he had worked a walk to bring up Giancarlo Stanton as the go-ahead run. Instead, Walsh rung Chisholm up to end the game, Chisholm was irate, and the Yanks failed to clinch a crucial series win.
“It’s just ridiculous to have the inning that I had and then Jazz got the bat taken out of his hands on a pitch that was a lot further from the zone than pitches I was making,” Williams said.