Both the Cleveland Indians and Kansas City Royals have to deal with umpire Angel Hernandez this week.
That is bad news for any team.
Hernandez was at first base Tuesday night and took part in two truly mind-boggling calls.
The first was one of the top stories of the game and actually ended up hurting the Royals.
For those who missed it, let’s recap the madness.
Angel Hernandez’s First Debacle
The first disaster was a crew-wide issue.
A ball was ripped to center field and Indians outfielder Harold Ramirez clearly did not make a catch.
Andrew Benintendi was tagged out but Angel Hernandez overturned the call without a review and no one knows why pic.twitter.com/ZfZYKkY8eR
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) May 5, 2021
But no call was made, leaving the Royals runners confused as to what was going on.
Andrew Benintendi ended up being tagged out as he stood between second and third base.
Further review shows Hernandez offering up a quiet point of his finger, which did not signal either a safe or out call.
The rest of his crew stood and stared at one another.
The ultimate decision was a hit and Benintendi was awarded third base.
Even though he was tagged out and probably could have scored if a simple call had just been made in the first place.
Furthermore, Josh Naylor was the one who threw the ball in!
So how could this be so confusing?
Hernandez’s solution was giving Benintendi a base because of a judgment call.
Terry Francona could not believe what he was seeing.
Cleveland manager Terry Francona on what he said to umpire Angel Hernandez after that bizarre call:
"I just kind of told Angel, 'Why's it always happening when you're here?'"
— Ryan Lewis (@ByRyanLewis) May 5, 2021
This likely cost the Royals a run in the end.
But it still remains frustrating because this cannot happen at the MLB level.
Yet it does over and over when Hernandez is on the field.
He wasn’t even done after that one call.
A Pathetic Call at First
Jose Ramirez came to the plate in the top of the sixth and hit the ball to third.
He clearly beat out the throw, yet was called out by Hernandez.
The call is reversed and José is safe at 1st!
Now the bases are loaded and Franmil Reyes is up 👀 pic.twitter.com/7FpVHyICEZ
— Bally Sports Cleveland (@BallySportsCLE) May 5, 2021
Both the Indians and Royals seemed to know the play would be overturned and it was.
Two batters later the Indians had tied it at 3-3, once again illustrating the negative impact Hernandez can have on the game.
If there was no replay, the Indians would have to deal with that awful call.
It is just nonstop with Hernandez and he is now behind the plate Wednesday night with Shane Bieber on the mound.
A few terrible calls early on may be enough for Francona to lose his mind and get ejected.
MLB has a problem on its hands and umpires cannot have such amazing job security if they are not even good at their job.
As Francona said, all this drama always seems to happen when Hernandez is in town.
Maybe this time around he and his crew can make sure to actually make calls and not stare at each other like two teenagers umping a little league game.
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