Six balls, zero strikes, zero swings and yet one strikeout for Juan Soto.
That’s the state of MLB umpiring in 2024.
Umpire John Tumpane had a particularly egregious zone during the fifth inning of the Yankees’ 4-3 win over the A’s on Tuesday when he rung up Soto — known for having an elite eye — despite not a single pitch from Oakland’s Paul Blackburn finding the strike zone.
All six of Blackburn’s pitches should have been called balls — with perhaps one call questionable at best — but Tumpane ruled that half of them had clipped the zone.
Soto even thought he walked after the fifth pitch and seemed frustrated with the at-bat after being called out on a borderline pitch, tossing his bat in the air.
“So Juan Soto didn’t see a strike that at-bat,” Yankees announcer Ryan Ruocco said, “and yet struck out looking.”
It’s sequences like this that only heighten the call for robot umpires since Tumpane clearly whiffed on the calls and cost Soto an opportunity to reach base.
And it comes one day after Yankees manager Aaron Boone was tossed from the game in the first inning after home plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt mistook a fan’s taunt for the manager.
The Yankees led 4-2 at the time when Soto walked to the plate with two outs and none on, and Blackburn missed the plate with his first two pitches.
And that’s when the ump show took over.
The 2-0 offering missed the zone, as shown on both MLB.com and Baseball Savant boxes, but Tumpane called the 81-mph slider a strike.
“That is called a strike, Soto knows probably was off,” Ruocco said.
Blackburn then missed again before the most egregious call of the at-bat.
The righty’s 92-mph fastball clearly missed the zone down and away, to the point Soto started taking off toward first base, yet Tumpane ruled it clipped the zone.
“Gets the call way off the plate and it’s 3-2,” Ruocco said.
John Flaherty replied: “It’s not a strike.”
The 3-2 offering could be argued to be borderline, as the MLB.com and Baseball Savant zones showed the very tip of the ball hit the zone, but the Yes Network box showed it below the zone.
Soto casually flipped his bat in the air before taking off his gloves, seemingly wondering how he got robbed of a potential 20th walk in 24 games.
The right fielder ranks third in MLB in walks and has an AL-best .432 on-base percentage, indicating he knows the zone as well as anyone.
But Tumpane showed that sometimes that doesn’t matter.
