And you think you’ve had a hard day at the office.
One umpire had five consecutive calls overturned by the automated ball-strike challenge system during the Pirates-Red Sox Grapefruit League spring training in Fort Myers, Florida.
Home plate umpire Mitch Trzeciak must have been red in the face when some of his calls were challenged and overturned. But later he received a sarcastic cheer when a call was accepted by ABS.
It started in the first inning when Pirates catcher Endy Rodriguez challenged a ball call on a Carmen Mlodzinski pitch, and the ABS review made it very clear that the ball was a strike and essentially went straight up the middle.
NESN play-by-play man Tom Caron couldn’t resist pointing out the obvious mistake, saying, “And that one, right in the middle.”
Caron continued to point out the tough day Trzeciak had during the broadcast.
“You missed two, and one was right in the middle, and one was two inches off, and you thought, ‘Okay, I’m having a bad day, and everyone knows it,’” Caron said later on the air.
Ultimately, Trzeciak, a Triple-A referee who was given the opportunity to call a major league game, had five calls that were overturned by the challenge system before the end of the third.
But the calls weren’t the only bizarre thing to happen during Tuesday’s game.
Red Sox outfielder Wilyer Abreu was left a little stunned when he broke his bat on a check swing in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Abreu didn’t make contact with the ball, but a large portion of his bat still flew away, leaving him holding a small piece of it.
The Pirates defeated the Red Sox in the exhibition game 16-7.
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