You knew it was going to happen – and it did.

As soon as it was announced on Friday that 61-year-old / 29-year MLB veteran umpire Angel Hernandez would be among the four umpires for the four-game series between the Dodgers and Miami Marlins at LoanDepot Park, you knew that sooner or later the guy considered by many (most) to be the worst umpire in all of baseball would blow at least one call.

Angel Hernandez did not disappoint, and his blown call cost the Dodgers the game – the first time.

With two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th inning and the Dodger clinging to a 3-2 lead, and on a 1-2 count, Marlins catcher Jacob Stallings attempted to check his swing on a 96-MPH four seam fastball from 36-year-old Dodgers right-hander Chris Martin.

Stallings clearly did not check his swing; clear to everyone in the ballpark or watching on TV except Angel Hernandez, who ruled on appeal from home plate umpire D.J. Reyburn that Stallings had checked his swing.

It was among Hernandez’s most egregious blown call in recent memory, and there have been many. So instead of high-fives and water baths for what should have been a Dodgers win, Martin had to somehow regroup and regain his composure to continue pitching to Stallings; only now on a 2-2 count, with two outs and the bases still loaded.

Fortunately for Martin, the Dodgers, the entire baseball world, and even for Angel Hernandez himself, Stallings fouled the next pitch off before popping out to Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman in foul territory for the second final out of the game.

“Yeah, you know, I’ve been a part of some good and some bad calls,” Martin told reporters postgame when asked about the blown call. “Like, it’s just, I’ve done this before and obviously I knew I needed to calm down and go make a pitch.

“Yeah, it is what it is, it’s calls [that] get made bad, they get made bad for the other side, too. And it’s just go out there and just keep making one pitch at a time, and that’s all I try to focus on,” added Martin.

How’s that for having ice water in your veins?

The unfortunate part to all of this is that MLB will do absolutely nothing about it, which means that it will happen again.

Of that, you can be sure.

Play Ball!

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