Nationals shortstop Trea Turner. (Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports)
The Washington Nationals couldn’t believe it when Trea Turner was called out on a strike that missed the strike zone by more than three inches.
Think you’ve seen the worst strike call of the 2021 MLB season already? Think again.
Wednesday’s game between the Nationals and Phillies entered a new contender into the discussion.
This one comes courtesy of home plate umpire Nick Mahrley, whose strike call against Trea Turner was all sorts of terrible.
That’s a call you’d expect to see Angel Hernandez make.
The extra annoying bit is how the ball placement mirrored the previous pitch, which was called a ball. If you call it one way, you’ve got to be at least consistent.
It wasn’t the only headscratcher either. Another Twitter user pointed out an egregious ball call later in the game.
These are the kinds of calls that add up, especially in a game that went into extra innings.
Trea Turner had his ability to impact the game taken away by a bad call
The first instance came with Philadelphia leading 1-0. There were two outs and no men on bases, so maybe it would have made no difference. Maybe Turner would have hit a home run. We’ll never know because he didn’t get the chance to prolong the at-bat.
The specific outcome is less important than the principle. It’s not okay when you can’t trust an umpire to get basic calls right.
The Phillies and Nationals were tied at two by the end of the ninth inning. Philadelphia took control in the 10th with three singles to score three runners. Washington had no answer in the bottom of the 10th.
Philadelphia improved to 20-17 while Washington fell to 13-19. The former is second in the NL East. The latter further solidified their place at the bottom of the division.