Umpire scorecard makes Pirates' one-run loss to Padres look absolutely brutal

The Pittsburgh Pirates recently took yet another one-run loss against the San Diego Padres. While you could blame the Pirates’ bats for not stringing together hits, they still had seven in total with two more walks, compared to the Padres’ three hits and two walks. However, a more glaring issue presented itself as the Pirates offense stumbled: the umpire.

Edwin Jimenez suited up to work behind the catcher for this game, and essentially gifted the game to the Padres.

According to Umpire Scorecards, the three most impactful missed calls all went against the Pirates and gave the Padres a run favor of nearly +1.6 runs.

The most egregious call was against red hot catcher Henry Davis in the eighth inning. The former first-round pick faced Robert Suarez with the bases loaded and a full count. The right-hander missed well outside the zone with a 99 MPH fastball, yet it was called a strike. Had the correct call been made, this would have tied the game. The incorrect call resulted in Mitch Keller (correctly) blowing a gasket.

Pirates lose close game to Padres after brutal call by umpire Edwin Jimenez

This led to some obvious frustrations. Pirates manager Don Kelly was ejected from the game arguing the call. That tallies his third ejection since taking over as the Bucs’ manager, which now leads the league among all managers. That night’s starter, Keller, was seen in the dugout yelling out some of his frustrations, and both Andrew McCutchen and Matt Hague let Jimenez have it after the game when the umpires were heading to their clubhouse.

Jimenez is reportedly a relatively new face to Major League Baseball. Jason Mackey reported that Jimenez was a call-up umpire, with Bob Pompeani also echoing that sentiment and calling him a "rookie ump". However, Baseball Reference states he umpired 79 games in 2023. Jimenez may have been working at Triple-A prior to this game, but he does have major league experience as an umpire as well.

Calls like this only fuel the demand for a digital strikezone, or a ball/strike review system. MLB experimented with a review system during spring training. There were 1,182 total reviews during the pre-season, with 617 overturns, which is a rate of 52.2%. Keep in mind, there were nearly 1,200 balls and strikes reviewed in only 288 exhibition games. This may be a topic that will come up during the next CBA discussions.

Losing a game because the players didn’t perform well is one thing. But losing a game because the umpire regularly took the momentum out of the Pirates' hands is another entirely different and brutal thing. The Pirates were, unfortunately, victims of the latter during Friday night’s game. Multiple wrong calls went against them, including the most impactful ones of the entire game. A run favor of nearly +1.6 runs in a one-run game is unbelievably bad.