Umpire’s embarrassing botched call stings harder after Braves’ tight loss to Cardinals
The Atlanta Braves continued their road trip on Monday evening as they began a series with the St. Louis Cardinals. Things looked promising early on for Spencer Schwellenbach who made his fifth start of the 2024 season. However, things unraveled a bit for him in the third inning.
Schwellenbach had three strikeouts through the first two innings and allowed his first baserunner in the third inning. He got two outs in the inning but on a 1-1 count and a runner on second, Alec Burleson doubled in the first run of the game for St. Louis.
The Cards would rattle off three straight singles after that and take a 3-0 lead against the Braves. However, they would score a fourth run that proved to be the difference maker as Atlanta lost the game 4-3.
Spencer had Dylan Carlson in an 0-2 count but home plate umpire Alfonso Marquez decided that strike three was actually a ball. It was basically in the same location as strike two but a little bit higher in the zone. After missing the call, Schwelly was visibly upset by the botched call as he knew that was the end of the inning.
Instead, the Cardinals scored a fourth run when they attempted a double steal on that pitch. Sean Murphy threw down to second which in hindsight wasn’t the best decision but even still, that should have been a strikeout to end the inning.
Schwellenbach has every right to be upset by that especially coming from the minor leagues where that pitch would have been challenged and correctly overturned from a ball to a strike. An awful missed call like that is unacceptable. Umpires are human and make mistakes but there comes a point where it has to stop. How is a perfectly executed pitch clearly in the strike zone missed like that?
Spencer continued to be a nice surprise for the Braves as he allowed four runs on eight hits including no walks and six strikeouts through five innings. He was frustrated by his inability to escape the third inning but he moved on and gave Atlanta two more scoreless innings to keep things close for the offense.
