Angel Hernandez needed barely one week into the new MLB season to go full Angel Hernandez.
The infamous MLB umpire Hernandez went viral during Thursday’s game between the Detroit Tigers and New York Mets. The game went into extras, and in the 11th inning, Tigers first baseman Spencer Torkelson got hit on the hand by a pitch from Mets righty Michael Tonkin. But Hernandez, who was the home-plate umpire, negated the HBP by ruling that Torkelson had swung his bat as he was plunked.
Take a look at the footage, which showed that Torkelson didn’t really come anywhere close to a swing.
https://twitter.com/gifs_baseball/status/1775969016055484710
The Tigers would challenge the ruling, but it was deemed an unreviewable play because it had been called a swing (teams effectively cannot challenge balls and strikes). Detroit had the bases loaded at the time too so they were denied a run (and Torkelson denied an RBI).
Granted, the Tigers were already up 6-3 at that point and went on to win by that final score, so the sequence didn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. But for Hernandez to make a call that horrifically bad (and not even defer to the third-base umpire there) is unfortunately very, very on-brand for him.
