Arizona Diamondbacks Blown Calls of the Week: September 20-27

Summary

• Seven games this week, covering one game in San Diego, then the home-stand at Chase against the Marlins and Giants. 41 bad calls in total, an average of 5.9, which one call per game better than last week.
• The game in Petco was evenly split, 2-2. But the games at Chase were heavily skewed towards the Diamondbacks, with an overall 25-12 margin in calls helping the home team. That pushed the balance in Phoenix over the 50-50 split, though not yet by enough to counter the road bias against us. We’ll see what the final series in Kansas City brings!
• The totals for the year
  Overall: 571-620 (47.9% favor the D-backs)
  Home: 302-295 (50.6%)
  Road: 269-325 (45.3%)
• Best-called game: Sep 26, 11-4 vs. SFG (Jeff Nelson). There were two games with four blown calls, but Nelson had the slightly lower percentage, and one of the ones flagged here may have been an error, as the 0% pitch could not be located at Fangraphs.
• Worst-called game: Sep 25, 2-9 vs. SFG (Doug Eddings). Similarly, there were two games which had eight calls show up. Eddings had a higher percentage and the mistakes marked there were slightly more extreme, so he takes the tie-breaker. Looking at the overall chart from Fangraphs, it looks like his issues were mostly at the top of the zone, and on the right-hand side.

• Worst confirmed call. Most of the 0% calls could not be confirmed by a cross-check on Fangraphs, but this one was right there. It comes from the final at-bat in this afternoon’s contest, where David Peralta got his walk-off walk. Ball 4 was also noted by @DiamondbacksUmp, at a 14% agreement rate, so it seems that home-plate umpire Corey Blaser must have had a plane to catch - we’ll take it! And so did David... :)

The individual games

Sep 20, 13-7 @ SDP (Sam Holbrook)

• 4 bad calls (1.22% of pitches)
• 2 help, 2 hurt
• 0 outrageously bad calls
• Bad call score: 296
• Worst call

Sep 22, 13-11 vs. MIA (Tim Timmons)

• 5 bad calls (1.44% of pitches)
• 3 help, 2 hurt
• 0 outrageously bad calls
• Bad call score: 396
• Worst call

Sep 23, 6-12 vs. MIA (Tom Woodring)

• 8 bad calls (2.18% of pitches)
• 4 help, 4 hurt
• 3 outrageously bad calls
• Bad call score: 700
• Worst call

Sep 24, 3-2 vs. MIA (James Hoye)

• 5 bad calls (1.68% of pitches)
• 4 help, 1 hurt
• 3 outrageously bad calls
• Bad call score: 440
• Worst call

Hoye was the umpire of record for this one, as the man who finished the game, but the umpire who called most of the balls and strikes on this one was Jeff Kellogg. He had to be replaced in the eighth inning by Hoye, following Ketel Marte’s plate appearance in the bottom of the seventh. Marte’s bat slipped out of his hands on the follow-through, and clubbed Kellogg on the side of the head. He stayed in the game initially, but apparently felt shaky and had to go for a lie-down. Hopefully he’s okay.

Sep 25, 2-9 vs. SFG (Doug Eddings)

• 8 bad calls (2.78% of pitches)
• 5 help, 3 hurt
• 3 outrageously bad calls
• Bad call score: 718
• Worst call

Sep 26, 11-4 vs. SFG (Jeff Nelson)

• 4 bad calls (1.17% of pitches)
• 3 help, 1 hurt
• 1 outrageously bad call
• Bad call score: 326
• Worst call

Sep 27, 4-3 vs. SFG (Corey Blaser)

• 7 bad calls (2.36% of pitches)
• 6 help, 1 hurt
• 1 outrageously bad call
• Bad call score: 560
• Worst call