The Los Angeles Dodgers were pushed to the brink of elimination with a loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday night, and Matt Kemp thinks umpire Dale Scott is to blame. Kemp, who was furious after being called out on a pitch that appeared off the plate in the ninth inning, told reporters after the game that Scott’s strike zone was the worst he has ever seen.
“Terrible. Terrible strike zone,” Kemp said, via CBSSports.com’s Jon Heyman. “I’ve never seen anything like it. The umpire took the bat out of our hands. When you’ve got balls in the other batters box …
“You’ve got to be accountable, man. When we do bad things, we get punished. We can get sent down. When stuff like that happens, you should be gone. There should be some type of punishment.”
When a reporter noted that the 2-2 pitch from Trevor Rosenthal appeared to be a ball, Kemp was quick to point out that there were a “couple” that were called that way. Kemp’s argument in the ninth was that the called third strike was the exact same pitch as the one before it, which was called a ball. He was right, as the FoxTrax strike zone box showed pitch No. 4 completely hidden by pitch No. 5.
“This is by far the worst I’ve ever seen,” Kemp added.
Scott heard plenty of complaints from both sides throughout the game, but his strike zone was fairly consistent. He called a lot of pitches that were off the plate strikes for both teams. That said, you can see why Kemp was so frustrated with the back-to-back pitches in the ninth. That was the opposite of consistent.
The Dodgers will look to save their season on Tuesday night. They currently trail the Cardinals 2-1 in the NLDS.
