San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
The San Francisco Giants lost by one run to the San Diego Padres on Friday night, but they were robbed of a late baserunner by home plate umpire Adam Hamari.
The Giants are battling with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Padres for first place in the NL West, and if San Francisco has anything to say about it, it’ll be that way just about all season. But in a critical divisional matchup early in the season in San Diego, the Giants were robbed of an opportunity to send the game into extra innings that to Hamari.
With Wilmer Flores at the plate facing Padres closer Mark Melancon, Hamari called three straight pitches strikes that were outside the zone.
Padres narrow NL West gap thanks to bad call
The Padres now find themselves just 1.5 games out in the NL West behind the Giants and Dodgers. While the Padres earned a 3-2 victory thanks to RBIs from Eric Hosmer and Jurickson Profar, the bad call from Hamari has to leave a bad taste in the mouth of both teams.
The two teams will face off again on Saturday at 8:40 p.m. ET. Expect some pent up frustration front and center in that one as the Padres look to narrow their divisional deficit even more.