Joe Girardi didn’t like the way the strike zone was called Monday night:
Joe Girardi was fuming over Gerry Davis’ inconsistent strike zone Monday night, but his players seemed to accept it as part of the game.
Davis appeared to be squeezing CC Sabathia in the early innings – Sabathia walked four of the first six batters, matching his season high before he had recorded an out in the second inning – while Justin Verlander seemed to be getting a wider zone from the home-plate umpire.
“You throw some borderline pitches and you don’t get them, it makes the innings tougher,” Girardi said. “Sometimes you don’t get outs that you should maybe get outs.”
Actually, the strike zone was consistent. Pitches off the plate to the catcher’s glove side were called strikes, off the plate to the catcher’s throwing hand were not. Verlander worked the wide side of the plate more than CC, so he got more calls.
ALDS Game 3 called strike rate, Yankees-Tigers
Thanks to Baseball Analytics for the graphic.
Update: The Daily News also blames the Charlie’s Angels breakups for two slumps. 🙂
It differed, but not based on team. It differed based on handedness. http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfxVB/zoneTrack.php?month=10&day=3&year=2011&game=gid_2011_10_03_nyamlb_detmlb_1%2F&prevDate=103
Very interesting.
I could see that both pitchers were losing called strikes, but I didn’t notice it was always on one side. And since it happened for both pitchers, it had nothing to do with the catchers, I assume.
Not unfair, but still, it’s time for MLB to replace idiosyncratic strike zones with some technology.
The issue with the zone being wider by handedness is that the Yankees had 6 lefties in the lineup while the Tigers had just 1. I’d argue that a strikezone that is wide for certain batters but not others isn’t “consistent” in a way that makes it acceptable.
“Verlander worked the wide side of the plate more than CC, so he got more calls.”
If CC had “worked the wide side of the plate” as much as Verlander, he’d have ended up with a bunch of HBPs instead of BBs.
The zone was not only inconsistent given the differences in lineup composition and pitcher handedness, it was wrong. Davis should never work another playoff game.