The Los Angeles Dodgers are on the brink of elimination, and one player is pointing fingers at someone in a different shade of blue.
St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher John Lackey shut down the Dodgers on Monday night, allowing the Cardinals to pull away late and beat the Dodgers 3-1. The win gave the Cardinals a 2-1 series in the National League Division Series.
Lackey was tremendous, but Los Angeles center fielder Matt Kemp thinks Lackey and the rest of the Cardinals’ pitching staff got some help — from home plate umpire Dale Scott.
“Terrible. Terrible strike zone,” Kemp told reporters. “I’ve never seen anything like it. That’s disappointing because you’ve got guys out there battling. You know, this is two good teams going at it, and it’s supposed to be the teams, not the umpire, and I just feel like the umpire took the bat out of our hands today. He had a very generous strike zone. It’s hard to face good pitching when you’ve got a guy throwing a ball in the other batter’s box, and it’s called strikes.”
Kemp came close to being ejected in the top of the ninth inning. After taking a borderline pitch on the outside corner for a ball from Trevor Rosenthal, Kemp was rung up by Scott on the next pitch, which looked a lot like the offering he took for a ball.
The frustration had Kemp calling for umpires to be held more accountable for their actions.
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Kemp may have had a point, too. Here’s the pitch that was called for a ball.
And here’s the third strike.
In fact, the FOX pitch tracker had the pitches in just about the same location. The fourth pitch of the at-bat (the ball) was buried on the pitch tracker by the fifth pitch of the at-bat (strike three).
Photo via Scott Rovak/USA TODAY Sports Images
