Kyle Schwarber did what a lot of other MLB players thought he’d done over the years on Sunday night.
The Velez star became pelted at home plate referee Angel Hernandez after a questionable call in the ninth game of a match that had a number of them – from a referee with a history of receiving wrong calls.
Schwarber took a 3-2 heavyweight from closest Brewers Josh Hader who thought he was off the outside corner. But Hernandez called it the second hit of the second half in a match that hosts Velez lost 1-0.
The left Philadelphia player was then sent off after violently throwing a bat and helmet in disgust and running straight into Hernandez’s face. He then pointed to Hernandez, who did not return to him, to indicate that he had missed out on, in and out and high and low calls throughout the match before heading back to the dugout. He has come again to tell Hernandez once again how bad he is with Felice manager Joe Girardi who has also defended his case over the irregular strike zone.
“Everyone kind of saw what was going on,” Schwarber said. “I’m not here to bury anyone, but that wasn’t very good. You wish, I don’t know how to say it really, it wasn’t very good.”
Although that particular stadium was a little off, according to the stadium tracker, the announcers of ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” fully understood Schwarber’s frustration after they watched Hernandez run all night at Citizens Bank Park.
“Schwarber is speaking on behalf of both teams tonight,” said Carl Ravish, player-on-play. We’ve seen a lot of those demonstrations, nothing like that. We saw them as the players came back to the bench.”
Analyst David Kohn added: “I’m amazed that it took this long for someone to get this kind of anger.”
The game featured 26 combined strokes and lasted only 2 hours and 49 minutes.
Milwaukee veteran Andrew McCutcheon sparked controversy when he was called up by the 60-year-old Hernandez on the field in the third inning that tracked well outside the strike zone, leaving him in disbelief. Velez’s second baseman Jan Segura questioned the way the strike call was made on the inside during the fifth inning, with ESPN showing him on screen initially as a single ball.
“I wouldn’t say it was good, because it wasn’t,” Milwaukee hunter Omar Narvaez told reporters. “At least it was consistent for both teams. Sometimes you have to adapt and not leave the decision to the judge.”
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