Dodgers: Dave Roberts Explains His Side of Angel Hernandez Ejection
Friday night saw our first Dave Roberts ejection of the season and, in all honesty, it was pretty lackluster. In the 8th inning of Friday’s 3-1 loss, with the Dodgers mired in a frustrating offensive slump, Chris Taylor got no help from first base umpire Angel Hernandez who very, very much blew a check-swing call that changed the complexity of the at-bat.
For anyone watching any baseball this season, there’s that wonder in the back of your mind… are umpires getting worse this year?
Any way you slice it, MLB umpires are always perfectly imperfect. However, as always, Angel Hernandez lived up to his billing as the most laughably terrible umpire in baseball on Friday night after blowing the check-swing call and following with a quick hook on Dodger manager Dave Roberts who didn’t even have a chance to come out of the dugout before getting tossed.
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After the game, Roberts explained his frustrations.
I just I didn’t agree with the earlier balk call on [Jimmy] Nelson and then right there, I’m in the third-base dugout, so I don’t have a great angle, but it was pretty clear to me, from the backside, that CT didn’t go around. As a hitter, anyone who played the game knows that a 2-0 count is considerably different than a 1-1 count. I just think that we all need to be held accountable and I thought he missed it.
With all the rough calls and erratic strike zones we’ve seen so far this season, Dave is more than fair in his ask for accountability. The poor umpiring — particularly in the strike zone — is not the root cause of the Dodgers’ recent issues, but it can be an effect for a team as patient as LA.
As for rating Doc’s on-field argument with Hernandez, the markedly tame outburst earns a 4/10 from me — a far cry from some of the legendary moments brought to us by Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda or the great Lou Pinella of yesteryear. It’s something Dave will have to work on.
NEXT: AJ Pollock Confident that LA Will Turn Things Around
Angel Hernandez is idiot and disgraced to MLB period! MLB should have fired him a long time ago!
How is it that Hernandez still has a job, other than the fact he threatens a lawsuit any time his umpiring skills are called into question.
Time for the umpires union to step up and pull his card!! He makes them ALL look bad.
Did you see the plate umpire call a strikeout on three straight pitches to Flores of the Giants? Each of the three consecutive 9th inning calls (in a one run game in San Diego) were way out of Flores’ strike zone. Where’s the robot to call balls and strikes at home (let the umpire sweep the plate, take balls out of the game and kick people out). Doc does need to be more aggressive with the umps. I thought he just went out to get kicked out for personal reasons. A little gesturing and kicking dirt goes a long way.