MLB umpires are at it again!
On Thursday, the Philadelphia Phillies were playing the Atlanta Braves in a key NL East matchup as the playoffs loom large in a few weeks. With the Phillies up 1-0 in the bottom of the fifth, Dalton Guthrie was facing down a full count with no one on base. Pitcher Max Fried threw low and below the strike zone, but instead of Guthrie taking his place at first, he was called out looking by umpire Andy Fletcher.
Wait, what? As the tape clearly shows here, Fried’s pitch ended below Guthrie’s knee, and yet Fletcher rung him up for a horrendous strikeout.
WTF WAS THAT CALL?! pic.twitter.com/sUnTVaFsfS
— Brodes Media (@BrodesMedia) September 23, 2022
The Phillies dugout was, as expected, irate at the call. Hitting coach Kevin Long even got tossed for disagreeing with the strikeout.
Kevin Long gets tossed because Andy Fletcher doesn't know what a strike is pic.twitter.com/ROTsvUzx5k
— Brodes Media (@BrodesMedia) September 23, 2022
You don’t often see missed strikeout calls as bad as that one, honestly. MLB fans let Fletcher know how they really felt about the call on Twitter.
Hahhahahahhahahahahah not even close pic.twitter.com/YGJc0ENVjb
— The Good Phight (@TheGoodPhight) September 23, 2022
Andy Fletcher is having a tough night behind the plate. pic.twitter.com/mLKTX5s0Gf
— Tim Kelly (@TimKellySports) September 23, 2022
Andy Fletcher has been straight up awful tonight. In what universe is this a strike? Angel Hernandez could only dream of making a call THIS bad https://t.co/KW9ea0zpA4
— Tim Gross (@the_exTIMinator) September 23, 2022
Look, I know it’s a blown call but that’s just too close to take with two strikes, period. Swing a little — don’t put it in the ump’s hands.
Strike-zone box on tv has turned so many hitters/fans into absolute nitpicky whiners. #Braves https://t.co/usTT5sPz6M
— Beau Evans (@beauvans) September 23, 2022
Robot umpires gained another booster as Kevin Long gets tossed for arguing with Andy Fletcher on the called third strike to Dalton Guthrie
— Kevin Cooney (@KevinCooney) September 23, 2022
Kevin Long: People’s Champ
Andy Fletcher: 🤡🤡🤡#RingTheBell
pic.twitter.com/5VeAqEPe56— Underground Sports Philadelphia (@UndergroundPHI) September 23, 2022
Calculus is the study of things changing. One big unsolved problem thus far in calculus is Andy Fletcher's strike zone.
— Troll (@CapitolAvenue) September 23, 2022
Andy Fletcher has absolutely no consistency to his zone at all, ever.
— DD (@DDtch33) September 23, 2022
y’all know I’m a diehard Braves fan, but this is a horrible call https://t.co/bcsSUNR74v
— athena (@ShieldofPallas) September 23, 2022
Ain’t no way??? https://t.co/0dZMZJxZwa
— colleen 🍦 (@cmmcguire) September 23, 2022
