The Milwaukee Brewers are off to a 7-3 start through their first ten games of the season. Interestingly, all three of their losses have come in games in which they were shutout. After their Opening Day 4-0 loss to the Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee’s only other losses have been a 6-0 loss to the Cardinals and a 3-0 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks. It is this latest loss that has fans incredulous. While the Brewers’ hitters all went cold at the same time, matters were not helped by the inconsistent strike zone of home plate umpire Scott Barry.
The Milwaukee Brewers Could Not Overcome an Inconsistent Strike Zone
The Milwaukee Brewers mustered just three hits (all singles by William Contreras, Garrett Mitchell, and Brice Turang) while striking out a season-high 15 times. While many Milwaukee hitters were chasing curveballs outside of the strike zone, they were oftentimes put into pitcher-friendly counts by poor strike calls. The umpire scorecard from last night shows that Scott Barry’s class heavily favored the Diamondbacks:
Umpire: Scott Barry
Final: Brewers 0, D-backs 3#ThisIsMyCrew // #Dbacks#MILvsAZ // #AZvsMILMore stats for this game 👇https://t.co/YumiDiPycz pic.twitter.com/Uz270EgwSx
— Umpire Scorecards (@UmpScorecards) April 11, 2023
As one can see in the tweet above, Barry’s calls resulted in +1.49 runs for Arizona. His relative accuracy was -2.2% below what was expected in such a game. While this does not completely excuse the Brewers for scoring zero runs, it does help shed light on why they were so frustrated at the plate. Baseball is as much a mental game as it is a physical one, and knowing the strike zone is inconsistent can really mess with a hitter’s approach.
For interesting umpire stats from Umpire Scorecards considering last night’s game, visit their website here.
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1 Comment
Yeah, it is about the worst favored game I’ve ever seen.