Jun 11, 2022; San Diego, California, USA; Home plate umpire Angel Hernandez (5) looks on during the second inning of the game between the San Diego Padres and the Colorado Rockies at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports
You’d think playing MLB The Show would free baseball fans from Angel Hernandez-like bad calls. That would be an incorrect assumption.
Did the artificial intelligence inside MLB The Show somehow channel the real-life Angel Hernandez on a horribly blown call? A moment in the video game captured recently by a user shows a call that seemingly only Hernandez could miss so badly.
Take a look at the clip below from a game on MLB The Show between the Cleveland Guardians and the Oakland A’s. If there is an award for the worst call within a video game, this one may well win it.
Angel Hernandez can’t escape his reputation after awful MLB The Show call
In real life, Hernandez was up to his old tricks again on Saturday in a matchup between the Cincinnati Reds and Milwaukee Brewers, getting his name trending on Twitter within the first inning of the contest thanks to a strike zone that was larger than it should have been.
Of course, this isn’t the first time that Hernandez has been trending on social media this season. Flash back to April 24 as the Philadelphia Phillies hosted the Milwaukee Brewers on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball.
In the ninth inning of that game, with Hernandez behind the plate, Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber was called out on strikes facing then-Brewers closer Josh Hader. Right after the strike three call from Hernandez, it didn’t take long for Schwarber to provide one of the most memorable and demonstrative explanations of just how bad the strike zone from Hernandez often is, even at the most pivotal times of the game.
The Phillies, by the way, would go to lose that game by a 1-0 score.
In that game in Philadelphia, Hernandez was accurate 88 percent of the time calling balls and strikes. The MLB average is 94 percent, showing just how off Hernandez was and why Schwarber certainly had a point with his outburst.
If the designers of MLB The Show are looking to somehow replicate the potential for bad calls when Angel Hernandez is on the field, they certainly did a banner job of it.