The numbers never lie — and that’s a bad thing for Laz Diaz.
The home plate umpire from Monday’s Yankees-White Sox game had a miserable night behind the plate, which led to an epic meltdown from manager Aaron Boone.
Umpire Auditor tweeted the following mind-blowing statistic after the game:
“Umpire Laz Diaz missed 21 calls in the #Yankees #WhiteSox game and 14 went against the Yankees. He had a lower correct call rate than Angel Hernandez did on Sunday.”
This was the second straight game the Yankees had a beef with the home plate umpire.
According to Umpire Auditor, Angel Hernandez missed 23 calls in the Yankees’ 9-7 loss to the Astros on Sunday and now has “the lowest correct call rate in the league.”
But back to Diaz, who was public enemy No. 1 on Monday night.
A detailed breakdown by Umpire Scorecards shows Diaz called 89% of the taken pitches correctly.
Diaz missed on 19 pitches while calling 147 of 166 correctly.
That’s 8.6 fewer correct calls than the average umpire, according to Umpire Scorecards.
Nineteen missed calls tied for the 13th most this season.
Further, 17 of 50 called strikes were true balls, meaning Diaz’s called strike accuracy was 66 percent.
The average is 88 percent.
Boone eventually cracked in the eighth inning when Anthony Volpe struck out looking on a borderline call in the 5-1 loss.
Boone unloaded on Diaz, who tossed him from the game, after which the manager did his best Diaz impression.
That came one inning after DJ LeMahieu went down in the top of the seventh inning with runners on first and third and one out on a pitch that was clearly outside.
Umpire Scorecard identified the LeMahieu strikeout with one out and runners on the corners as the most impactful missed call of the game, based on the largest changes in run expectancy.
The manager bent down and drew a line in the dirt with his finger at the edge of the left-handed batter’s box, demonstrating where he thought the pitch was, and then mimicked Diaz emphatically calling strike three.
“I was pretty upset,” said Boone, tossed for the 32nd time in his managerial career. “I just think there were a ton of pitches all night.”
It was Boone’s sixth ejection of the season, which leads the American League.
At least the Yankees are first in something.
It could also lead to Boone’s second suspension of the season after a late May blowup arguing balls and strikes in a game against the Orioles.
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