Twins hitting coach ejected after arguing horrible strike zone vs. Guardians
To be fair, he wasn't wrong about having a gripe.
Things have not gotten off to a great start at the plate this year for the Minnesota Twins.
Bats have gone quiet in big spots, most notably with runners in scoring position. Minnesota extended it's miserable streak of leaving runners stranded in another loss to the Cleveland Guardians on Saturday, once again playing a game in which the bases were left loaded.
That bases loaded streak goes all the way back to the series against Milwaukee, and this is now three straight games it's happened. The Twins also dropped to 0-for-21 with RISP, something that is beyond embarrassing and troubling for a team that struggled with the same thing last season.
While the Twins hitters bear the brunt of the struggles, they aren't the only ones to blame for how bad things are going at the plate. Once again Minnesota ran into an umpire with a wildly inconsistent strike zone and it sent two coaches over the edge and one of them out of the game.
Twins hitting coach David Popkins got ejected for arguing balls and strikes against Guardians
After the fourth inning both Rocco Baldelli and David Popkins left the dugout to argue with home plate umpire Brennan Miller, but only one of them returned. Popkins was tossed, and it's hard to blame either coach for being furious over how things were being called.
Wallner's at-bat ended on two pitches that were clearly out of the strike zone but weren't called that way.
These pitches are not strikes, man pic.twitter.com/LLDHgNFV6O
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) April 6, 2024
If there's one thing you can always count on in baseball it's fans believing that an umpire is screwing their hitters over. Usually it's empty bickering but the game that Miller called it on Saturday pretty hard to defend.
Old school Gregg here sponsored by dog food that second strike was the right call because the ump established that 6 inches down is a strike so when he called 5 inches down (closer to the zone) he’s actually being consistent. That’s all real players ask for. pic.twitter.com/Ttkarv5yy3
— Greggory (@greggtmasterson) April 6, 2024
Strike zones aren't an exact science, which is incredible to think about but also part of baseball's charm. Human error is baked into the game, but the only thing consistent about Millers game behind the plate was how consistently he erred.
Blaming the umpire is also a dangerous crutch to lean on, and it's one that the Twins don't get to use to excuse how awful things have gone offensively so far this year. It's hard to believe that the wildly inconsistent strike zone wasn't impacting how hitters were seeing the ball at the plate, though, something that became evident the deeper into the game we got.
Still, bad calls are part of the game and not the reason the Twins are hitting a putrid .136 with RISP this season. That's entirely on the team and it's something that desperately needs to change regardless of how things are being called behind the plate.
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