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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Andrew Joseph

Nearly every missed call from umpire Chris Conroy favored the Astros in Game 1 of the World Series

In theory, Major League Baseball is supposed to send its top-performing umpires to work the World Series games. But even the best that MLB has to offer can be jarringly mediocre.

The Atlanta Braves took Game 1 of the World Series, 6-2, on Tuesday night in Houston with umpire Chris Conroy working behind the plate in his first career World Series assignment. Though Conroy ranked in the top third of umpire accuracy this past season, his performance on Tuesday happened to be noticeably one-sided.

According to Umpire Auditor, Conroy missed 11 calls in Game 1 with 10 of them going against the Braves and in favor of the Astros.

Umpire Scorecard estimated that Conroy’s strike zone added 1.62 runs in Houston’s favor.

And while Conroy avoided the kind of missed call that swung a ballgame, he didn’t make matters easy for the Braves. Will Smith’s ninth-inning walk should have been a strikeout.

He also had Freddie Freeman visibly confused when he announced, “That’s outside.” And then proceeded to punch Freeman out anyway.

As we’ve pointed out numerous times, it’s an easy problem to fix. The technology is there to institute an automated strike zone, and MLB would still have an umpire behind the plate to signal calls and rule on plays at home. All that would change is that balls and strikes — particularly in the biggest games — are called with accuracy.

It shouldn’t be so complicated.

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