Everyone at Wrigley Field knew it, you watching at home, people watching at a bar, your blind uncle, everyone saw Anthony Rizzo take strike three down the middle of the plate in the first inning except for home plate umpire Dan Bellino.
This was so obvious, even if the catcher had to move his glove back across the plate. Rizzo immediately put his head down and began to take a few steps toward the Chicago Cubs dugout, but no, the pitch down the middle of the plate was called ball 3.
It was such a ridiculous call that Len Kasper and Jim Deshaies couldn’t hold their laughter.
This is what I'm talking about. Rizzo knows it's strike 3 because it's down the middle of the plate. Len and JD just start laughing. #Cubs pic.twitter.com/716aLFSzW6
— Aldo Soto (@AldoSoto21) June 9, 2017
Rizzo then took ball four in the dirt and after Ben Zobrist singled, Jason Heyward had a run-scoring hit to center. Zobrist was also able to score on the Heyward hit because the Rockies misplayed the ball in the outfield, giving the Cubs an early 2-0 lead.
So, there you go, umpires still suck. And I don’t care that this favored the Cubs, it’s complete bullshit because it keeps happening when there’s a solution right on the screen to fix the issue of calling balls and strikes.