NEWSLETTER
I know complaining about the strikezone can be exhausting. It feels like an excuse, it gets old quickly, and the calls, when they’re bad, are sometimes equally bad for both sides.
That was not the case tonight.
Tonight, the home plate umpire, Phil Cuzzi, made some of the worst strike calls I have EVER seen in a game, with everyone from Dansby Swanson, to Seiya Suzuki, to Miguel Amaya getting the brunt of it. I mean, just look at this called strike three against Miguel Amaya, which was preceded by Rick Sutcliffe calling out the home plate umpire before the pitch was even made.
And here is Seiya Suzuki’s earlier:
Brutal.
But that’s not when Ross was rung up. His time came in the bottom of the second when Kyle Hendricks was not given nearly as generous of a zone on the outside corner. And things really escalated on an inside pitch, when Cuzzi motioned like he was about to call a strike, but pulled himself back to the groans of Boog Sciambi and Rick Sutcliffe. And evidently, yells from David Ross, who gestured that Cuzzi had already allowed five (incorrect) calls to go against the Cubs.
For what it’s worth, Cuzzi was correct on this call, but there had been a LOT of pent up emotion (and wrong calls) going into it:
So I say good on David Ross, who needed to stick up for his team in that moment. Unfortunately, as soon as he left, the Padres scored three runs (and counting) in the inning. The Cubs are in a hole.
