Brewers top Phillies 1-0 in horribly umpired game
The Phillies fell to the Brewers 1-0 in a game that will only be remembered for the horrendous strike zone called by home plate umpire Angel Hernandez.
Angel Hernandez was probably trending on Twitter tonight, because the veteran umpire gave us one of the worst performances I can remember in my twenty five years watching baseball.
It wasn’t just the Phillies getting screwed either. For the majority of the game both clubs seems perplexed and bewildered by Hernandez’s erratic strike zone. This is the exact reason baseball is pushing for automated strike zones. When the batters lose confidence in what is a strike and a ball it affects the game in a profoundly negative way.
Angel Hernandez is a 60-year-old man who has been considered one of the worst umpires in the sport for at least the last decade and arguably longer. This loser even sued the MLB in 2017 because he believed he was being discriminated against because he is Hispanic.
Hey Angel, you are not being discriminated against because you are Cuban…look around you, everyone is Hispanic! You are being discriminated against because you suck and cannot be trusted to work high leverage games.
As far as the game goes, tonight was an absolute pitcher’s duel. Both Aaron Nola and Eric Lauer were excellent. Nola pitched seven innings allowing only one hit and striking out nine. More importantly, he succeeded in not allowing any home runs, which I have mentioned multiple times is the key to success.
The only time the Phillies truly threatened was in the 5th inning when Jean Segura popped up in foul territory and then Rhys Hoskins struck out with the bases loaded.
But the defining moment of the game came when Odubel Herrera and Johan Camargo were not able to come up with a shallow fly ball that was ruled a hit but should have been caught.
Jace Peterson eventually reached third base with one out and was knocked in courtesy of a Christian Yelich sac-fly.
The Phillies couldn’t get anything going against the best closer on the planet, Josh Hader, and just like that after an energy-filled game one they dropped the series to the Brewers.
Good Riddance!
Brewers (10-6) Beat Phillies (6-10)
- Winning Pitcher: Devin Williams (1-0)
- Losing Pitcher: Corey Knebel (0-1)
- Save: Josh Hader (8)
In the first inning JT Realmuto caught Willy Adames venturing a bit too far from first base and delivered a beautiful pop throw to Rhys to end the inning.
Aaron Nola was able to get Andrew McCutchen on a pitch that was clearly outside but looked perfect to Angel Hernandez. It was only the third inning but the players, fans and even the announcers knew that this game was turning into a shit-show.
Aaron Nola continued dealing recording his 7th K of the night with this high fastball to Keston Hiura.
With the bases loaded Rhys Hoskins failed to deliver for the Phils when they really needed it. Despite sporting an excellent OPS of 130 Hoskins is now slashing .197/.349/373 and has been really struggling with runners in scoring position.
Aaron Nola notched his 8th strikeout during the 6th inning by getting Jace Peterson with a nasty knuckle curve.
This was the first time of the night that Kyle Schwarber would strikeout on a ball called a strike by Angel Hernandez.
Jean Segura made a nice diving play to steal a single away from Rowdy Tellez in the 7th inning.
This is the perfect example of a mistake by the Phillies defense leading to a go-ahead run. Johan Camargo and Odubel Herrera failed to communicate on a fly ball that has to be called by Herrera. Jace Peterson would reach first and eventually score the go ahead run in the ninth inning.
Christian Yelich knocked in the aforementioned Jace Peterson from third base with a sac-fly to put the Brewers up in the ninth inning.
1-0 Brewers
Kyle Schwarber gets rung up for the second time tonight on a bad call and has clearly had enough.
Kudos to Schwarber for finally doing what at least ten guys on each team wanted
Up Next
The Phillies open up a four-game set against the Colorado Rockies on Monday evening at Citizens Bank Park.
Kyle Gibson (1-1) will get the nod against Kyle Freeland (0-2) with the first pitch scheduled for 6:45 pm.
NBC Sports Philadelphia will carry the broadcast of the game.
[…] against a playoff caliber team in the Milwaukee Brewers in the most aggravating fashion. They were shutout on national television which is embarrassing in itself, but when a blind 60-year-old home-plate […]