The New York Yankees’ season came to an end on Tuesday night at the hands of the Boston Red Sox. New York found itself in a 4-0 hole during a win-or-go-home Game 4 in Yankee Stadium, and despite coming close to a dramatic ninth inning comeback, the Red Sox sealed their ALDS tilt with a 4-3 victory.
Amid all the regular drama that comes when the Yankees and the Red Sox meet up, a major source of attention came in the form of one of the series’ umpires, Angel Hernandez. During Game 3, Hernandez had three calls overturned by replay, which was the latest chapter in a career that has featured plenty of complaints from players on how he calls games.
Game 4 was generally controversy-free, although Hernandez was behind the plate and didn’t exactly have the world’s most consistent strike zone for the myriad of arms that took the bump. One of those pitchers, Yankee starter CC Sabathia, spoke to the media after the game and railed against Hernandez.
CC Sabathia on Angel Hernandez: “He’s absolutely terrible. He was terrible behind the plate today. He was terrible at first base. It’s amazing how he’s getting jobs umpiring in these playoff games.”
— Tim Healey (@timbhealey) October 10, 2018
More CC Sabathia on Angel Hernandez: “He shouldn’t be anywhere near these playoff games.”
“He’s bad. I don’t understand why he’s doing these games.”
“It’s sad that he’s doing these games. It’s crazy.”
“He’s always bad. He’s a bad umpire.”
— Tim Healey (@timbhealey) October 10, 2018
Because this is Yankees-Red Sox, of course, this had to result in some amount of controversy. For that, we got to Red Sox starter Rick Porcello, who picked up the win on Tuesday and decided to throw shade at Sabathia for his analysis of Hernandez’s strike zone.
Rick Porcello wasn’t having this. He said: “Throw the ball over the plate C.C. I thought Angel Hernandez called a good game. You gotta out the ball over the white part of the plate and then you get the strikes called.” https://t.co/uF4yORR3cO
— James Wagner (@ByJamesWagner) October 10, 2018
(For the record: Sabathia threw 59 pitches on the evening, with 35 of them being called strikes.)
It’s understandable that Sabathia was on edge — the 38-year-old lefty is a free agent after this season, and if he goes elsewhere or calls it a career (which might not happen, but you never know), his would-be final start as a Yankee featured him going three innings, allowing three runs, and picking up a loss. Still, while Sabathia’s future is up in the air, one thing is for sure: The most true sentiment in sports is that the sign of a great referee/umpire/whatever is that you never know their name.
