Umpire lost track of the count and missed a strikeout during Twins-Guardians game
.jpg "Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Tanner Bibee (61) questions the umpire on the number of strikes against Minnesota Twins third baseman Royce Lewis (not pictured) were assessed in the fourth inning at Target Field. After the umpires conferred, Lewis was called out on strikes.")
Arguing balls and strikes can get a player or manager ejected from a game.
But what if a pitcher is arguing that he struck out a batter and the umpire somehow missed it?
That’s what happened during Thursday night’s Twins-Guardians game in Minneapolis. The Twins’ Royce Lewis fouled off the first pitch of a plate appearance against Cleveland’s Tanner Bibee in the fourth inning at Target Field.
The next pitch was a ball, then Lewis fouled off another pitch.
Bibee followed that by throwing a fastball that appeared to be low and out of the zone, but home plate umpire Ryan Additon called it a strike. Additon did not, however, indicate that Lewis had struck out.
That’s when Bibee made a strike-out signal to Additon, who seemed unmoved. Bibee raised his arms in disbelief.
Additon called timeout and eventually got the call correct after talking it over with the other umpires. One could say Additon got help with addition, but he wouldn’t have noticed the mistake were it not for an alert Bibee.
Here is the sequence from Pitching Ninja.
