No. 2018.10.08 · Modern Era
Three Calls, Four Innings
In the first four innings of a 2018 division-series game, first-base umpire Ángel Hernández had three calls overturned by replay. Two involved Didi Gregorius. One involved Gleyber Torres.
Umpire Ángel Hernández in Houston, April 2015. Not the 2018 ALDS game.
EricEnfermero / CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)
October 8, 2018, Game 3 of the American League Division Series at Yankee Stadium. Ángel Hernández was at first base. In the first four innings, replay overturned him three times. Two of the plays were on Didi Gregorius. The third was on Gleyber Torres. Boston won the game, 16–1. The score made the calls irrelevant to the result and impossible to miss on the broadcast.
Hernández already had a reputation, including a racial-discrimination lawsuit against Major League Baseball that did not succeed. This night became the short version of that reputation: three reversals before the fifth inning of a playoff game. He retired on May 27, 2024.
A reversed call is the system working. Three of them in four innings is the entry. The lawsuit is context for why the night was received as it was.
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