[ad_1]
Philadelphia Phillies infielder Alec Bohm was fuming after umpire Alex MacKay called what looked to be a ball a strike to end the bottom of the seventh and changed the course of Sunday’s game between the Phillies and Minnesota Twins.
Bohm angrily threw his bat on the ground before looking back at the umpire and slamming his helmet down.
The second act quickly got him tossed from the game after the call ended a bases-loaded chance that would have driven in a run to cut the Philadelphia deficit to 2-1.
Statcaster on the NBC Sports Philadelphia broadcast of the game showed the ball had been outside the strike zone by a decent amount and that the pitch should have been called ball four.
It wasn’t the only call that MacKay appeared to miss during the game.
An inning later, MacKay rung un Bryce Harper on a pitch that seemed to miss the strike zone away and outside, which prompted Harper to say something to the ump before walking back to the dugout.
Phillies manager Rob Thomson then came out to have a word with the home plate ump and was ejected from the game.
“Alex MacKay can go back and take a look. Those are not good calls by all of the boxes that they can throw at you. Those pitches were not in any of them,” Phillies radio broadcaster Scott Franzke said.
Even before the call on Harper, Phillies fans at Citizens Bank Park were giving it to MacKay.
A loud chant of “Ump you suck!” rained down from the stands at the start of the eighth inning.
This is not the first time that MacKay has been in the spotlight for a call this season.
Last month, Chicago Cubs manager David Ross tore in MacKay during a game against the Yankees right before the MLB All-Star break.
Ross was tossed in first inning of the contest and then proceeded to rip into the home plate ump before exiting.
“You gotta do better,” mics picked up Ross telling MacKay as he got into the umpire’s face. “You’ve got one god— game before you get a break and you’re that f–king bad already?”
MacKay is still relatively young in his umpiring career, having been one of 19 umps to make their debut in 2020, according to Baseball Reference.
[ad_2]
Source link