Max Kepler was called out on strikes despite pitcher not throwing a single strike

Jordan Heck

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Max Kepler was called out on strikes despite pitcher not throwing a single strike image

Twins outfielder Max Kepler had an interesting at-bat Tuesday night.

Kepler was facing Brewers pitcher Eric Yardley in the top of the sixth inning. It was a crucial at-bat because the Twins were down by two runs, and had runners on first and second with no outs. While standing at the plate, Kepler didn't swing at any of Yardley's pitches.

He was smart not to, because the pitcher threw nothing but balls. But umpire Jerry Meals didn't see it that way. The end result was Kepler being called out on strikes. But if you look at MLB.com's strike zone, all five pitches were outside.

max-kepler

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That obviously looks bad.

But maybe it just looks worse because it's a clear-cut strike zone. Umpires don't have a magical box in front of them when calling pitches that come hurling toward them at 90-plus mph. So maybe those calls looked a little better when you view the replay.

Not really.

Those are pretty bad calls no matter which way you look at it. The second strike call was especially egregious. The third strike call was at least close enough to where you can't get too upset, but you can even see Kepler in the video looking at the umpire and point down, indicating it was a low pitch.

But that single at-bat wasn't the only complaint fans had about Meals during Tuesday's game. A comparison of his called strikes vs. the Twins and vs. the Brewers shows two different strike zones (credit to Baseball Savant).

twins-vs-brewers

His poor effort was noticed by fans as well.

This is why there's a demand for robot umpires. 

Jordan Heck

Jordan Heck Photo

Jordan Heck is a Social Media Producer at Sporting News. Before working here, he was a Digital Content Producer at The Indianapolis Star. He graduated with a degree from Indiana University.