Umpire Ángel Hernández Facing Criticism After Phillies-Brewers Game

Everybody’s favorite umpire had himself a banner performance on Sunday Night Baseball.

Everybody’s favorite umpire had himself a game for the ages on Sunday Night Baseball.

The umpire in question—Ángel Hernández—has long been derided by fans and players alike for questionable calls in key moments that frequently place him squarely in the spotlight. Stationed behind home plate for a nationally-televised game between the Brewers and Phillies on Sunday, Hernández was in rare form.

The Twitter account @UmpScorecards uses pitch-by-pitch data from MLB to evaluate how accurately and consistently umpires call balls and strikes. By any measure, Hernández fell well short of the standard for a major league umpire, with a remarkable 11 out of 48 called strikes actually landing outside the strike zone—some by a comically large margin.

Umpire: Angel Hernandez
Final: Brewers 1, Phillies 0#ThisIsMyCrew // #RingTheBell#MILvsPHI // #PHIvsMIL pic.twitter.com/x38zUGrU5E

— Umpire Scorecards (@UmpScorecards) April 25, 2022

Unsurprisingly, players from both teams were visibly agitated at Hernández’s performance, leading to some animated exchanges all night.

Kyle Schwarber is the voice of America pic.twitter.com/vAy0GQTB0I

— Welcome to the Ump Show (@umpjob) April 25, 2022

Angel Hernandez stays seated at the throne of the worst to ever do it. https://t.co/TPI22ghYrF

— Jared Carrabis (@Jared_Carrabis) April 24, 2022

Angel Hernandez in elite form tonight pic.twitter.com/VuTicAGPVF

— Welcome to the Ump Show (@umpjob) April 25, 2022

Schwarber’s called third strike in the ninth inning was particularly impactful, though all of the missed calls held significance in what ended up being a 1–0 win for Milwaukee. Brewers pitchers notched 16 strikeouts on the night, including a career-high 13 by starter Eric Lauer. Two different Phillies—Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos—struck out three times apiece.

Players and coaches for the Brewers and Phillies, unsurprisingly, weren’t the only ones who took Sunday night as an opportunity to lob criticism at Hernández’s performance. Check out the best reactions from social media below.

Ángel Hernández has missed over 2,600 balls and strikes calls in the last seven years and oh how I wish I was kidding. https://t.co/vyF86ULGTQ

— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) April 25, 2022

I'm here for Angel Hernandez strike zone FOREVER.#AngelsUnite

— Noah Syndergaard (@Noahsyndergaard) April 25, 2022

Sources: Angel Hernandez misses the E on eye charts

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) April 25, 2022

Umpire Angel Hernandez was the lowest rated umpire on the day, missing 19 calls for a correct percentage of 85.3%.

He rang up 6 batters on pitches that were outside the zone and called a strike to Jean Segura that missed inside by a season high 6.47 inches.#Brewers #Phillies pic.twitter.com/pmmt1ELJJ6

— Umpire Auditor (@UmpireAuditor) April 25, 2022

Angel Hernandez is the glue holding our society together. If players could no longer lash out at him, god knows where all that anger would go

— Richard Staff (@RichardStaff) April 25, 2022

It’s wild that Angel Hernandez has a terrible reputation, constantly does things to reinforce it, and still gets to call balls and strikes in MLB games.pic.twitter.com/eXNX8NJIgg

— Gary Parrish (@GaryParrishCBS) April 25, 2022

Finally someone freaked out on Angel Hernandez. Kyle Schwarber is all of us.

— James Seltzer (@JamesSeltzer) April 25, 2022

Angel Hernandez pulls out of the stadium with a smile on his face with people screaming at him because he knows he gets to show back up tomorrow and umpire another game 🤷🏻‍♂️

https://t.co/J65LtasQJG

— Ben Verlander (@BenVerlander) April 25, 2022

Bryce Harper from the dugout > Angel Hernandez behind the plate pic.twitter.com/zKZYWti0S9

— Hunter Brody (@Brodes81) April 25, 2022