Yasmany Tomas stares down Clayton Kershaw’s strike, gets walked anyway
Jun 15, 2016, 3:37 PM | Updated: 8:36 pm
Clayton Kershaw's 7th "walk." Yasmany Tomas was actually walking back to the dugout like strike three. #Dodgers pic.twitter.com/I00x0nRIPL
— Ryan Walton (@RyanWaltonSBN) June 15, 2016
Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw entered his Thursday start against the Diamondbacks having walked all of six batters.
All year.
That’s a result of his ridiculous control, which wasn’t missing against Arizona on Thursday. Kershaw lasted 7.1 innings and did allow five hits and two earned runs, but Los Angeles pulled him in the eighth frame with a 3-2 lead.
Now, we’re not here to talk about umps blowing calls — especially not in favor of the Dodgers — except that we have to when things are blatantly off. And when it mars a guy’s stat line that explains his season in a nutshell, it’s hard not to take notice.
A fifth-inning, eight-pitch battle between Kershaw and the D-backs’ Yasmany Tomas mattered little in the grand scheme of the game, but when the ninth pitch was called Kershaw’s seventh walk of the entire season, well, it was significant.
It was significant not just because it came against the swing-happy Tomas. It stood out because the final pitch that drew the walk was actually anything but a ball.
Look at this thing!
Call hurts #Dodgers
Ball 4 should be strike 3
Bot 5 Kershaw vs Tomas
2% call same
5.9in from edge pic.twitter.com/dLv620zcnS— Dodgers Strike Zone (@DodgersUmp) June 15, 2016
According to the very handy MLB Strike Zone Twitter account, only 2 percent of umpires make the same call for a ball 5.9 inches from the edge of the typical strike zone.
It makes you wonder what Tomas was looking at. For the record, Tomas has struck out 158 times to just taking 32 walks in his one-plus season with Arizona.
