As pointed out by BleacherNation: the strike zone starts at the bottom of the batter’s knee. When the pitch crosses the plate, it’s at the line through the bottom of Xander’s front knee. It was a ball according to the TV box, but by the actual rules defining the strike zone, it’s a strike.
36 comments
Popular opinion. Everyone complaining like THIS was the call that ended the Pads season is fucking crazy. They were shutout through 8 innings. They had the tying run in scoring position to end the game. Even if this is a walk, Keller is yanked after the next HBP. Acting as if things would have unfolded the way they did and the tying run would have scored is the dumbest line of thinking I’m seeing on the internet right now. Also, Pete was safe and Nico was safe, so we’re even in the end anyways.
Gotta pull the pants up and manipulate that zone as a batter. Like when guys were wearing like..puffy basebakll shorts pulled up to their thighs early this season lol.
One of the marquee guys was asking if they thought that might be to manipulate the zone a bit.
I just checked the scorebook, can confirm, called a strike.
It wasn’t a strike, but not quite as bad as it seems from looking at it. Plus, Carson framed it excellently. I’ve definitely seen much much much worse called third strikes.
Meh…
A) I think Seiya also got an expanded zone K on a 3-2 the inning prior
B) The (led to nothing) Xander SB and ***especially*** the Nico slide at home could have gone the other way and just as there was insufficient evidence to overturn, neither would have there have been enough to overturn if the *Cubs* had gotten the call.
C) I reject the silly “bases loaded no outs!” — If Keller goes HR – BB – HBP; he doesn’t stay in the game to HBP Johnson. Now… does Kittredge (or Boyd?) get 3 outs with runners on 1st/2nd? Who knows… But Keller doesn’t get a 4th batter in the 9th.
It’s a strike because the Ump called it a strike. That is the end of the arguement.
I think the 3D box that’s adjusted for player height has it as a ball. We got a lucky call at a critical moment, which is fine it happens. There were also calls that went against us so I feel like it evens out.
At the game I saw Xander was upset. But it wasn’t until I got on the train home i watched the call. Was the ump calling it consistent or was he all over the place? Regardless, Cubs get a great well deserved W. Crowd was awesome.
Every call went their way except this one and they’re furious. Hilarious, almost like they didn’t get shut out for 8 innings. Padres did not hit well enough to win end of story
Unpopular opinion: who cares. We outplayed them the whole game and their stars didn’t show up. Now let’s forget about it and focus on the Brewers.
I checked the pitch on baseball savant. The ball actually falls within the normal strike zone not adjusted for the batters height. When adjusted for height it does miss by about 2 inches. Was the call correct? No but how many pitches that were close did we have guys foul things off to keep the bat alive? That’s all half our batters do and it’s to close to take. Wish it could have been correct but it was left up to human error.
Personally I think it was a bad call. That was a ball. However, look at the whole game. SD’s bats went ice cold.
I got a video and Carson Kelly sold that as a strike props to him. But that’s why we need the challenge. But I ain’t mad Carson Kelly sold it. And so we go on to the next, but they’re acting like because of that one call, they lost the game. They weren’t scoring the whole game. Just as we didn’t score in the second game. We ran those ninjas
It’s on to Milwaukee
the whole argument over it is dumb. was it a ball? yes. would keller’s pitch sequence be the exact same where he ends up hitting o’hearn (then gets pulled?) probably not.
BleacherNatiom saying that’s a strike doesn’t surprise me one bit
I don’t think it was a strike, but only reinforces my opinion that the K Zone does not add value to the game.
Confirmed.
“1996 – The Strike Zone is expanded on the lower end, moving from the top of the knees to the bottom of the knees.”
Source: https://www.mlb.com/official-information/umpires/strike-zone
Bad call or not, the MLB needs to get rid of the “strike zone” overlay. It’s not accurate.
Also Xander, protect on anything close. It’s literally baseball 101.
San Diego’s star players (Tatis, Machado) were like, what 1-11 for the whole series? In real time, the call looked bad, and while it’s a bit low, it is definitely not as eregious as others are making it out to be.
Plus, everyone saying oh it would have been tied must not have seen Nico I thought he was safe. Even with bases loaded, who says they would have tied the game given how they batted all night long
I posted this in another thread but by definition this actually is probably a strike but next year with ABS it will be called a ball because it uses a proportion of a player’s height which will tend to be a bit higher for everybody. Pitch 3D on statcast uses next years ABS system and they say its a ball. Pads were a year too late with this pitch unfortunately
I dont get how stupid people are being about this. If keller walks Bogaerts, theres no guarantee keller even hits anyone with a pitch after that, everything changes. Just one guy is on base, not bases loaded. You dont just get to assume that the entire sequence of events stays the same. Thats not how this works.
It shouldn’t have had to come to this. I hope Counsell learned his lesson. He should have pulled Keller after giving up the HR. And at the very least should have pulled him after the first hit batter. Keller was cooked. I don’t know why he waited for so long.
I might be dumb and I never played professional baseball so I dunno. But espns mics picked up Xander literally calling the last few pitches before the ump. It almost seemed like showing up the ump to me. I’ve rewatched it like 5 times and I swear he says ball low or nope low and then gets rung up. You can kind of hear it on a few others too.
I dunno if that played into it all but it’s crazy to me to hear him saying what he thinks it is before the ump.
Unpopular Opinion: That box is fake and causes more issues than it solves.
Look, the thing you see on TV is not actually correct. It’s an approximation to add a stupid annoying graphic to the screen. Also, and this is really unpopular, it doesn’t matter if the ball was outside of the fake ass box, what matters is where the ump was calling strikes all game. I don’t know if be’d been calling this a strike before, but if he was, by the 9th the batter needs to know and have adjusted.
The rule includes the language, “when the batter is in his stance and prepared to swing at a pitched ball.” This screenshot is as the pitch has already reached the plate. His movement could have caused him to crouch a little more or stand up a little more (as he decided to lay off) by the time the ball got there compared to when it was released. In other words, you would need a shot from a few frames earlier if you were going to get really picky about the zone.
Just went on the Pads sub and they don’t really care about the call anymore for the most part. They’re pissed at the stars not producing all series lol. We can def relate…
Yep, it’s a strike. Knee high. Kelly with a great frame.
Perhaps ABS overturns this call, perhaps not.
Pitch was too close to watch on a 3-2 count.
Most padres fans aren’t even talking about this. We’re talking about firing everyone on the hitting staff for taking a talented lineup and having zero clue in how to get them out of slumps.
For having a contact approach and talking about Petco as if you can’t hit homers when homers are league average there. For basically every player being at a career worst under this hitting staff.
Congrats on the win Cubs.
Unpopular opinion: This is baseball. If you don’t want to strikeout on a called strike, swing the bat.
They scored 5 runs in 3 games so they don’t have anyone to blame but themselves.
We scored 6 and deserved the win 🙂
The issue of exactly where the strike zone is is going to become a bigger issue with ABS. Many experts think MLB umpires have been calling a strike zone that is much smaller than what the rulebook specifies.
We don’t need to justify the call. Let’s be real, it was horseshit and if the shoe was on the other foot, we would be as livid as Xander and Padres fans were.
That said, they had 8 innings beforehand to ensure that it didn’t matter and all they had to show was a giant goose egg. Most importantly they got nothing out of their best players, something I would be way more concerned about if I was a Padres fan. If people want to use that call as cope, so be it. Fact of the matter is we were the better team last night and we’re moving on to the NLDS while they’re booking their Cancun reservations.
I know this kind of talk isn’t popular in the days of the strike zone overlay broadcasts, but whatever happened to the concept of protecting with 2 strikes?
Idk, this seems a bit petty.
We already won the game and series, going back to “prove” it wasn’t a bad call doesn’t benefit anyone and is often the reason why I hate dealing with Yankees/ Astros/ Dodgers fans. Winning isn’t enough, they also have to be “right”.
Ball