Sep. 7, 2021
Kris Bryant of the San Francisco Giants bats against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the bottom of the first inning at Oracle Park on Sept. 5, 2021, in San Francisco.
Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images
Complaining about umpires is generally a salty, silly endeavor. They’re human beings who make mistakes, and those mistakes tend to balance out over the course of a full season. And anyway, a blown call hardly ever overrides the most important component of a game, which is how the actual players perform.
But I’ll give home plate umpire Tony Randazzo credit: In the Giants-Dodgers series finale on Sunday, he appears to have legitimately given Los Angeles a bigger boost than any of their batters.
Yes, San Francisco won 6-4, but Randazzo’s shaky strike zone apparently contributed to a whopping 2.42 runs for the Dodgers.
That’s because, as you can see above via Umpire Scorecards, Randazzo had an overall accuracy rate of 86%, which is significantly below the league average of 94%.
In fairness, Giants analyst Cole Kuiper did some quick math and noted that before the series finale, umps had slightly favored the Giants over the Dodgers this season. That … no longer applies after Randazzo’s curtain call.
Ultimately, everything worked out fine for San Francisco, thanks to strong across-the-board batting from Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford, Steven Duggar and Mike Yastrzemski. But just this one time, I won’t label you a sore winner if you want to pull the “We should’ve won by EVEN MORE!!!” card.
