Home plate umpire Doug Eddings made a baffling strike call in the 11th inning of Monday’s Rangers-Diamondbacks game, and Texas’ announcers couldn’t believe it.
Rangers slugger Adolis Garcia took a pitch that looked well outside in a 1–1 count. Instead, Eddings called the pitch a strike, despite the fact that Diamondbacks catcher Gabriel Moreno had to reach all the way across the strike zone to snatch the pitch. The call elicited quite the reaction from the Rangers’ television broadcast team on Bally Sports Southwest, who couldn’t believe the pitch was called a strike.
“No! What?! What in the world?!" play-by-play broadcaster C.J. Nitkowski reacted. Color commentator David Murphy described the call as “incredibly frustrating.”
Here’s the missed call and the full reaction:
"Nooo, what?! What in the world?!"
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) August 22, 2023
"That is... that is incredibly frustrating."
"I mean, not only is it outside, but it's missed location."
"It's a big time missed location."
The Bally Sports Southwest Rangers broadcast couldn't believe this call in the 11th inning.⚾️👮♂️ pic.twitter.com/wUCvF3UaJ8
Ouch.
The call wound up being a consequential one. Garcia went on to strike out, stranding a runner at second base. In the bottom half of the 11th, the Diamondbacks scored three runs to win in walk-off fashion.
According to Umpire Auditor, Eddings missed 21 of 139 calls during Monday’s game, the second-lowest rate by any umpire this season.
