Halos Today

Angels Coach Appears to Flip Off Umpire, Tempers Flare After Brutal Missed Calls

J.P. Hoornstra|
Home plate umpire Erich Bacchus during a game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers in the third inning at Miller Park on Sept. 16, 2020.
Home plate umpire Erich Bacchus during a game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers in the third inning at Miller Park on Sept. 16, 2020. | Benny Sieu-Imagn Images

Wednesday was a rough day at the ballpark for the Angels. Arguably, their game against the New York Mets was even rougher for home plate umpire Erich Bacchus.

Argue was the operative word in the eighth inning of the Mets' 6-3 victory over the Angels in the finale of the three-game series at Citi Field.

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Switch-hitter Luis Rengifo, batting left-handed against Mets closer Edwin Diaz in the eighth inning, took two pitches off the outside of the plate with one strike. Both pitches were called strikes by Bacchus, and Diaz's strikeout stranded a pair of runners with the potential tying run in the batter's box.

The Angels weren't happy with the calls. Interim manager Ray Montgomery was ejected for arguing. So was Tim Laker, the Angels' offensive coordinator, during the bottom of the eighth inning with the Mets batting against Angels pitcher Jake Eder.

SNY, the Mets' regional television network, showed Laker express his frustrations with Bacchus before getting the heave-ho.

Freeze-frame that clip and it appears Laker needed only one finger to summarize the feelings he expressed in so many words:

None of Bacchus' ball/strike calls during Luis Torrens' at-bat against Eder were as egregious as the two missed calls during the Rengifo at-bat. But it's unlikely the umpire will receive his best grade of the season from Wednesday's game.

Bacchus is closer to the top of the umpire accuracy rankings than the bottom, according to umpscorecards.com, where his 94.67 percent accuracy rating is likely to take a hit.

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As for Laker, it's possible his gesture will subject him to supplemental discipline from Major League Baseball.

Montgomery was elevated to interim manager, and Ryan Goins to bench coach, when manager Ron Washington was placed on medical leave in June. If Montgomery is suspended by the league, he will not be able to appeal the discipline, and the Angels would potentially be left with three managers in a span of less than two months.

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(Incidentally, this also happened in August 1996 when Marcel Lachemann resigned, interim manager John McNamara tended to a medical issue, and Joe Maddon filled in for McNamara. When Maddon was ejected during one August game, pitching coach Joe Coleman became the fourth man in a month to serve as the Angels' bench boss.)

Regardless of how it happened, the Angels' record is what is after getting swept by the Mets. At 49-53, they are 4.5 games behind the Boston Red Sox for the third and final Wild Card berth in the American League.

For more Angels news, head over to Angels on SI.

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J.P. Hoornstra
J.P. HOORNSTRA

J.P. Hoornstra is an On SI Contributor. A veteran of 20 years of sports coverage for daily newspapers in California, J.P. covered MLB, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Los Angeles Angels (occasionally of Anaheim) from 2012-23 for the Southern California News Group. His first book, The 50 Greatest Dodgers Games of All-Time, published in 2015. In 2016, he won an Associated Press Sports Editors award for breaking news coverage. He once recorded a keyboard solo on the same album as two of the original Doors.

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