Derek Holland got kayoed early, but Max Scherzer's cruising ... with just a little help from his friend behind the catcher, plate umpire Larry Vanover, who has noticeably given Scherzer a couple of called strikes three that were, according to the evidence we can muster, well outside the strike zone:
Rangers vs. Tigers: Scherzer Cruising, Detroit Still Up 3-2
As Brandon McCarthy observed on Twitter, Vanover's "strike zone" brings back memories of Livan Hernandez and Eric Gregg.
Granted, if you take those plots as gospel, Vanover missed a couple of strikes that were well within the zone. But it’s those (apparently) outside pitches that get all the attention, and Vanover simply has to do better than this. Or else he might ... actually he might nothing. MLB is powerless to do anything at all. Which is a shame, but what are you gonna do? Someday we’ll have robots and then we’ll have one less thing to write (complain) about.
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