The Giants overcame a brutal strike zone from home plate umpire Manny Gonzalez in their thrilling 7-6 comeback win over the Chicago Cubs on Monday night at Wrigley Field.
In the moment, the Giants and everyone watching the game on TV realized how bad Gonzalez's strike zone was, but two umpire evaluators confirmed what was evident in real-time.
Umpire Auditor noted that Gonzalez missed a season-high 27 calls during Monday's game, while Umpire Scorecards had him at 26 missed calls and a plus-1.19 run expectancy for the Cubs.
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Per Umpire Scorecards, the three most impactful calls all went against the Giants.
Manager Bob Melvin endured nearly eight innings of bad calls and finally had enough when Gonzalez rang up Matt Chapman on a called third strike to end the top of the eighth inning.
Mark Leiter Jr.'s pitch was low and caught the edge of the zone, but Chapman clearly thought it was ball four and started walking to first base when Gonzalez called strike three.
Melvin was ejected following the called third strike on Chapman and he gave Gonzalez a piece of his mind before heading to the Giants clubhouse.
San Francisco Giants
Melvin had time to settle down and offered a more reasoned take on the situation while talking to reporters after the game.
"Makes it a little hard, but you know what, umpiring is not an easy job," Melvin said. "And both sides have to deal with it. Sometimes it goes your way, sometimes it doesn't, but you have to put that away and still look for a good pitch to hit and if it's not there, try to get on base, especially when you're behind like that, you get a couple of guys on base and one big swing and we end up winning the game."
Gonzalez entered Monday's game as one of MLB's least consistent home plate umpires, so it's no surprise that his strike zone was all over the place.
The Giants fell behind 6-3 in the seventh inning, but they didn't quit, as Patrick Bailey crushed an eight-inning solo homer and Thairo Estrada hit a go-ahead ninth-inning three-run homer.
In spite of Gonzalez's strike zone, the Giants found a way to pull out their 36th win of the season.