San Diego Padres pitcher Blake Snell had a middling day on Wednesday against the New York Mets, but if you ask him, his outing was partly derailed by PitchCom.
In the bottom of the fifth, Snell gave up a long home run to Mets first baseman Pete Alonso. The 2-0 fastball was right down the middle, and it was hardly a surprise that Alonso turned on it the way he did.
POLAR POWER 🐻❄️
Pete Alonso's 6th home run of the year gives the Mets the lead! pic.twitter.com/Sb9jnz94nS
— SNY (@SNYtv) April 12, 2023
After the inning, Snell held up his PitchCom device toward a dugout camera and mouthed the word “terrible.”
Blake Snell is NOT a fan of PitchCom:
"Terrible." pic.twitter.com/xq7tRpx1ku
— Ben Verlander (@BenVerlander) April 12, 2023
Snell explained the issue after the game. He had apparently wanted to throw a 2-0 slider to Alonso, but kept hitting the wrong button on the PitchCom device, and chose to throw a fastball instead of taking an automatic ball.
Blake Snell said he tried to press slider on pitchcom for Alonso's HR. He kept hitting two-seamer. With time running out, Snell figured he'd rather throw a 2-0 fastball than be assessed a ball.
"But I threw it down the middle, where he hits home runs. It was really frustrating."
— AJ Cassavell (@AJCassavell) April 12, 2023
It would be one thing if the device was malfunctioning, but Snell makes it sound like he just kept hitting the wrong button. Not a lot of people are going to sympathize with him if that was really the only issue.
Snell is far from the only pitcher to take issue with the PitchCom system, but unless it was not working properly, this one is ultimately on him.
