Missed ball/strike calls in Game 5 highlight need for MLB to perfect 'robot ump' technology

Ryan Fagan

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Missed ball/strike calls in Game 5 highlight need for MLB to perfect 'robot ump' technology image

WASHINGTON — The Nationals said all the right things after the game, leaving headline writers and social media mavens across the country disappointed.

Throughout their Game 5 loss, frustration built with home-plate umpire Lance Barksdale’s strike zone. You could see that in the dugout, hear it in the stands and and read it all over Twitter. With all the technology available to determine balls and strikes — and to know instantly — it was obvious that calls were missed, regularly, throughout the game.

And not just against the Nationals, but they were the team trailing in the game and about to lose their third consecutive World Series contest at home, so every missed call produced a little extra angst. 

MORE: Five defining moments from Astros' Game 5 win

After the game, the calmer heads prevailed. There will be no fines levied. 

“You know what, I will not ever sit here and criticize an umpire,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said. “I’ve known Lance (Barksdale) for a very long time and he's really good. And that's all I'm going to say about it. I'm not going to sit here — I know there were some choice words but that's just in the heat of the moment. But like I said, they're doing their job, and they do it really well. That's why they're an umpire in the World Series.”

Barksdale is a good umpire, yes, and there is a reason he’s behind the plate in the World Series. But we have proof that several strikes were called balls, and several balls were called strikes. It’s the same thing that happens every game during the regular season. It just takes on added importance in October. 

And so the “robot umpires” discussion bubbled up again during Game 5, as it has at several points in the series. Because if the options are “get most of the calls right” or “get all of the calls right,” shouldn’t MLB want to get all the calls right? 

Think about it this way: MLB long ago decided that “most calls right” wasn’t good enough anywhere else on the field. That’s why they have replay, to get as many calls right as possible. But somehow, for balls and strikes — the foundation of the sport — it’s OK to be “good enough” and not perfect? 

The sport is moving in that direction, thankfully. In the Arizona Fall League, pitches were called by “robot umpires” this fall, and the system needs work. MLB won’t implement the system at the major league level until it’s perfect, or as close to perfect as possible. That’s not happening anytime soon, likely. 

There’s pushback, of course, from the umpires themselves and from old-school fans who aren’t happy with change and from those who worry about what happens to a sport too reliant on technology and not humans. But the game is headed there anyway. 

The flashpoint moments of Game 5 happened on consecutive batters in the bottom of the seventh inning. With two outs, Ryan Zimmerman worked the count full against Astros ace Gerrit Cole. The right-hander unleashed a 92 mph slider that seemed to catch a sliver of the strike zone, in the high/away corner of the zone. It was called Ball Four.

Cole clearly didn’t like the call, the TV cameras catching him muttering “Whatever” as he turned back to the mound to prepare for the next batter. And Victor Robles, that very next batter, worked the count full against Cole again. And again, Cole went to the same area, this time with a 98 mph fastball that was — according to pitch-tracking data — a little farther outside than Ball Four to Zimmerman.

This one, though, Barksdale called Strike Three. The Nationals were not pleased. 

“I know I saw their dugout reaction and I saw our dugout reaction on the Zimmerman pitch when he walked right before that,” Houston manager A.J. Hinch said. “That’s why I went out to the mound to calm Gerrit and Martin down. They both had a reaction the other way.”

Look at the two pitch plots, specifically Pitch 6. 

strike-zone-game-5-102719-ftr-mlb

And that’s the frustration. Yes, it’s hard to be a home-plate umpire, making split-second decisions on pitches that are dipping and diving and coming in at 100 mph. But if an umpire’s best is demonstrably not good enough, shouldn’t the technology be used to get calls correct? 

That wasn’t the only issue either team had. 

In the sixth inning, Barksdale seemed to imply that Yan Gomes’ assumption that a pitch would be Strike Three is the reason it was called a ball. 

This pitch from Tanner Rainey sure looked like a strike. 

And there’s more, too, but the point has been made. Baseball can't allow "pretty good" to be good enough in the World Series. 

Ryan Fagan

Ryan Fagan Photo

Ryan Fagan, the national MLB writer for The Sporting News, has been a Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2016. He also dabbles in college hoops and other sports. And, yeah, he has way too many junk wax baseball cards.