Kyle Schwarber did what plenty of other MLB players have likely thought of doing over the years on Sunday night.
The Phillies star went ballistic on home plate umpire Angel Hernandez after a questionable strikeout call in the ninth inning of a game that had a number of them — from an ump with a history of getting calls wrong.
Schwarber took a 3-2 sinker from Brewers closer Josh Hader that he thought was off the outside corner. But it was called a strike by Hernandez for the second out of the inning in a game the host Phillies would lose 1-0.
The Philadelphia left fielder was then ejected after violently throwing his bat and helmet in disgust and getting right into Hernandez’s face. He then gestured to Hernandez, who didn’t go back at him, to signal that he missed calls outside, inside and high and low all game before walking back to the dugout. He came out one more time to tell Hernandez again how bad he was with Phillies manager Joe Girardi also pleading his case over the erratic 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 that, I don’t know how to really say it, it just wasn’t very good.”
Though this particular pitch was just a little bit outside, according to the pitch tracker, ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” broadcasters fully understood Schwarber’s frustration having watched Hernandez work all night at Citizens Bank Park.
“Schwarber is speaking for both sides tonight,” play-by-play man Karl Ravech said. “We saw a lot of those demonstrations, none like that. We saw them as players went back to the bench.”
Added analyst David Cone: “I’m surprised it took this long for somebody to have that kind of an outburst.”
The game featured 26 combined strikeouts and lasted just two hours and 49 minutes.
Milwaukee veteran Andrew McCutchen took issue when he was called out looking by the 60-year-old Hernandez on a pitch in the third inning that was tracked well outside the strike zone, just rolling his eyes in disbelief. Phillies second baseman Jean Segura questioned a strike call way inside during the fifth inning, where the ESPN on-screen display even put it up initially as ball one.
“I’m not going to say he was good, because he wasn’t,” Milwaukee catcher Omar Narvaez told reporters. “At least he was consistent for both teams. Sometimes you’ve got to adjust and don’t leave the decision to the umpire.”
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