Arizona Diamondbacks blown calls of the week, May 31-June 6

Summary

• 40 bad calls in total, averaging 6.7 per game.
• As last time, with the exception of one game, this was entirely a road week. However, the numbers on both sides were more or less even: 18-16 in favor of the D-backs in the five road games, and 3-3 in the single contest at Chase Field.
• The totals for the year
  Overall: 215-244 (46.8% favor the D-backs)
  Home: 118-112 (51.3%)
  Road: 97-132 (42.4%)
• The road split ticked up towards even, as it did last week. However, there is still only a 1.22% chance of such a bias against the D-backs on the road being achieved by random chance. The home split is not statistically significant.
• Best-called game: May 31, 6-5 @ PIT (Gary Cederstrom). Kudos are definitely deserved here, especially considering the marathon nature of this one, and the terrible conditions in the later stages. The worst call (see the individual game below) was not corroborated from a second source. So it’s quite possible Cederstrom called 12 perfect innings, before having an (understandably) wider strike-zone for his other two calls, in the very late stages. Hey, I wanted to get on with my life as well...
• Worst-called game: June 4, 5-6 @ MIA (Kerwin Danley). Yeah, if you were watching Sunday’s contest in Miami, this will come as absolutely no surprise, with a strike-zone that was both large and inconsistent. He reached a dozen blown calls, despite the relatively quick pace in terms of pitches (the Marlins’ staff threw only 97). And that’s not even including the catcher’s interference call he missed, despite being literally right next to the play. Here’s what his strike-zone looked like.

The individual games

May 31, 6-5 @ PIT (Gary Cederstrom)

• 3 bad calls (0.67% of pitches)
• 2 help, 1 hurt
• 3 outrageously bad calls
• Bad call score: 296
• Worst call

June 1, 3-2 @ MIA (Todd Tichenor)

• 3 bad calls (1.10% of pitches)
• 1 help, 2 hurt
• 1 outrageously bad call
• Bad call score: 258
• Worst call

June 2, 5-7 @ MIA (Adam Hamari)

• 7 bad calls (2.30% of pitches)
• 4 help, 3 hurt
• 2 outrageously bad calls
• Bad call score: 572
• Worst call

June 3, 0-3 @ MIA (Bill Miller)

• 9 bad calls (3.78% of pitches)
• 6 help, 3 hurt
• 3 outrageously bad calls
• Bad call score: 744
• Worst call

This one is perhaps worth a more detailed look, since it was the game in which Edinson Volquez no-hit the D-backs. However, only two of the questionable calls came with him on the mound, neither were outrageous and both were in the very early stages - nothing after the second inning, in fact. While Miller had his share of bad calls, it does not seem he impacted the no-hitter. On the other hand, first-base colleague Kerwin Danley, who initially called Paul Goldschmidt safe, on what would have been the game’s only hit... But then, we’ve already seen how bad Danley is at his job.

June 4, 5-6 @ MIA (Kerwin Danley)

• 12 bad calls (4.60% of pitches)
• 5 help, 7 hurt
• 3 outrageously bad calls
• Bad call score: 744
• Worst call

June 6, 10-2 vs SDP (Jeff Kellogg)

• 6 bad calls (1.96% of pitches)
• 3 help, 3 hurt
• 0 outrageously bad calls
• Bad call score: 486
• Worst call