The Houston Astros had a legitimate shot on Monday at their first no-hitter since Justin Verlander’s gem in 2019. The only problem was that Angel Hernandez was behind the plate this time.
With a combined no-hitter alive in the eighth inning with one out and a runner on first, Astros reliever Brandon Bielak was way ahead on the Orioles’ Maikel Franco with an 0-2 count.
Bielak sure looked like he froze Franco with an 84 mph breaking ball that caught A LOT of the plate. It was well in the broadcast’s strike-zone box. But Hernandez, who is objectively awful at his job, ruled that the pitch was a ball.
You be the judge:
Angel Hernandez strikes again and messes up the no no! @blummer27 @astros pic.twitter.com/8tdYAFFQKo
— Luis Vasquez (@sketchylu) June 22, 2021
Stay classy Angel. Missed the K pic.twitter.com/ERy6UqGaFk
— Michael Schwab (@michaelschwab13) June 22, 2021
The sure looked like a would-be strikeout.
Well, the missed call would prove costly as Franco broke up the no-hit bid with a home run on the very next pitch.
broke up a no-no, counts pic.twitter.com/MLzvPoA3zl
— Orioles on MASN (@masnOrioles) June 22, 2021
Just brutal.
And, yeah, the Astros would go on to win, 10-2, so it wasn’t like the missed call robbed them of a win. But Bielak deserved the strikeout there, and the no-hit bid should have kept going.
No umpire makes a better case for robot umps than Hernandez. That much is clear.
