It’s not baseball season without Angel Hernandez — for better and worse.
The controversial umpire had another awful moment behind the plate, and this one did not sit well with the Rangers announcers on Bally Sports Southwest during a 12-8 Texas win over the rival Astros.
The defending World Series champions pounced on the Astros and built an 8-1 lead in the top of the fourth when Texas loaded the bases for rookie Wyatt Langford.
But then, Hernandez struck.
He called an obvious 2-0 cutter a strike despite it being outside the zone.
Astros pitcher J.P. France then threw nearly the exact same pitch in the same spot — twice — to set the Rangers’ booth off.
“You have got to be kidding me!” Rangers Bally Sports Southwest play-by-play announcer Dave Raymond. “What in the world?!”
“This is just bad,” analyst Dave Valle said. “Three consecutive pitches well off the plate.
“That’s just so obvious. That was terrible.”
It’s not even Hernandez’s only controversy within the last week.
He was also at the center of a controversial strike call on Gleyber Torres in the Yankees-Blue Jays game on Sunday, but again, it did little to affect the outcome, given that the Bronx Bombers won, 8-3.
He also had a prior misstep last week in a game between the Mets and Tigers in a call that involved Detroit’s Spencer Torkelson, whom Hernandez claimed swung the bat when it appeared he had hot — and had in fact seemed to have been hit on the hand.
Hernandez’s calls had little effect on the Rangers in their Friday night win, even though the Astros made a late surge by scoring five runs in the seventh inning.
The Rangers improved to 8-6 on the year as they dropped the struggling Astros to 4-11.
