Editorials

Dodgers Continue to Be the Unluckiest Team in Baseball with Called Strikes

Things have been going well for the Dodgers in the month of August, but Friday night’s loss to the Colorado Rockies was a reminder of an issue that has plagued them all season long.

With one man on and one out in the bottom of the ninth, the Dodgers were trying to build a last-minute rally in an attempt to win the game. Corey Seager had worked the count full and received what looked like ball 4 to put two men on base. Instead, he was rung up on one of the worst blown calls this season.



You can chalk it up as the human element of the game, but the bottom line is that these missed calls have been happening much more often. The Dodgers, in particular, seem to have it worse than any other team in baseball. Heading into Friday’s game, they led the league in called strike threes on pitches outside the zone.

I feel like I should say that these blown calls don’t excuse any losses this season, because there are plenty of opportunities across 9 innings to get some runs across. What it does say, however, is that no team in baseball has had to work around as many bad calls as the Dodgers. This is a team that prides itself on plate discipline and that’s something that should be rewarded, not penalized.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said himself that the 2 blown calls weren’t the difference-maker. Still, it’s really odd that they’ve had so many calls go against them. 

Dodgers: Dave Roberts Explains Why Billy McKinney Continues to Start

Daniel Palma

Daniel is an avid sports fan who loves his hometown teams. If he's not watching baseball, you can find him playing or coaching. No matter what, he'll always root for the Boys in Blue!

16 Comments

  1. Winners win, losers make excuses. That being said I’ve been a proponent of electronic balls/strikes for a few years now. Why are pitchers against it? Because they know how to take advantage of individual umpires strike zones. I also believe that EBS would eliminate the game killing launch angle BS in a heartbeat. Umpires miss the high strike call more than any other. Getting more high strike calls would force hitters to get back on “top” of the ball.

  2. The twitter comments are all about “bad calls happen, goes both ways, losers make excuses, blah, blah, blah.” None of that is the point. The point is the Dodgers get screwed over in this regard more than any other team in baseball, either because there is bias against the Dodgers or because they have better plate discipline than any other team in baseball. It may go both ways but it goes against the Dodgers more than any other team. That’s the point. The Dodgers need to make a big enough stink about this that every ump in MLB has it in the back of their heads when calling borderline pitches with the Dodgers batting.

    1. In my opinion— I believe the MLB who despises the Dodger domination of the West uses the umpires to make calls against them whenever they can. And the umpires have chosen their masters.

  3. I’m 73. I’ve seen plenty of baseball. I’m growing tired of hearing multi millionaires belly aching over the strike zone like whining children.
    Bring on the electronic umpires. All of them. Turn baseball into cyber world.
    That way…..No complaints, right.
    Bunch of cry babies
    That strike zone works “both ways”.

    1. Not sure what the age of 73 has to do with it. Wiser? Hmmmm…I am a year younger and as I get older I realize how little I know…now, the blown calls are legit. I expect umpires, along with everyone else that does a job, to get it right. The call on Seager is not even close. Bring on the robots….but not because of people whining but because they need to get it right.

      1. That seems to be typical for most of the responses here. “I’m older than you”, “I’ve been a Dodger fan longer than you”, therefore, “my opinion counts more than yours”. It’s almost impossible to have a legitimate discussion here.

  4. Dodger management can and should file a complaint to the league office with perhaps supported video to show how bad some of these calls really are. Not an excuse for losing but these umps must be held accountable for this and should face disciplinary
    issues just as players have. No fan in the world pays for or comes to any game to watch an inept idiot of an umpire sabotage the games as they do and it happens with Dodgers too many times. If I were in management I would be all over the league office,’s facece over this. These bad calls are blatantly obvious to all.

  5. After watching the Dodgers this season I agree whole heartedly with this stat. I would say that the Dodgers get this happening to then 10-15x/game, w/a lot of time at crucial moments. For the most part, the umps are least consistent both ways with horrible calls. I have never been in favor of EBS but with consistently how bad umps calls have become, it’s time for it.

  6. Pay attention to when this happens the most. It’s when MLB doesn’t want LA to gain ground on frisco

  7. If you total up that list of blown called strikeouts that is alarming. Either today’s pitchers are so good in manipulating the pitch or the umps can’t see it and guessing it’s trajectory. I also noticed it’s calls that can’t be reviewed like blown checked swings that are missed…recently w/ the Giants that could have ended in a win. Umpires should be evaluated and graded more stringently and reprimanded for repeated bad judgment. The major leagues is not a recreational league, a blown call or two in a game has damaging results for the player and the team big time.

  8. This statistic cries out for context. What is the relationship between number of pitches seen and blown calls? How many strikes were called ball four? How many calls were blown either way during the entire game? So on and so on.

  9. No reason to replace umps but do suspend them for blowing calls well outside the strikezone.

  10. A bad call on 1st or 2nd strike is also causing strike-outs because the hitter will now swing at a outside ball on strike 3 because of the 1st bad call.

  11. And until they can get robot and bars in place they need a very quick and easy way to challenge balls and strikes, like a 2 max very quick replies for a group of back office guys to make a final decision. The players union should require a solution for this either way starting next year or sooner, as umpires are every day time and time again every game, tarnishing the game as we know it.

    I am almost ready to start boycotting this game if they do not fix this by next year.

  12. As soon as they come up with robot umpires the Astros will hack into the system and cheat their way to a Series win again.

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