Alec Bohm was spitting mad at a called strike three in the Phillies' game vs. the Twins on Sunday — enough, at least, to be tossed from the contest.
It's easy to see the source of Bohm's frustration — except, perhaps, for home plate umpire Alex Mackay. He called a controversial strike three with Bohm facing a full count and the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh. A called ball four would have cut the Twins' lead to 2-1 and brought Bryce Harper up to the plate.
Instead, Mackay called an inside pitch as a strike to end the at-bat and the ending, much to Bohm's frustration. The latter threw his bat at the ground in disgust and, after a brief back-and-forth with Mackay, got tossed after throwing his helmet.
Phillies announcers Tom McCarthy and John Kruk were also understandably critical of the call, though the former attempted to be more diplomatic in his criticism. Kruk was more pointed, saying, "That's terrible."
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Alec Bohm was just ejected after this strike-three call with the bases loaded 😳 pic.twitter.com/FPmKhfDbsB
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) August 13, 2023
The local crowd aligned more with Kruk's assessment of the call: They started an "ump you suck" call at Citizen Bank Park in the top of the eighth:
“Ump you suck!” chants rain down on Alex Mackay pic.twitter.com/cIjJP58RxD
— Crossing Broad (@CrossingBroad) August 13, 2023
Things didn't get much better from there, either. Harper struck out looking after a low-outside pitch from Caleb Thielbar, causing him to give an earful to Mackay as well. That prompted manager Rob Thomson to come out and speak with the ump as well, after which he was shortly tossed from the game.
And now Bryce Harper gives the ump an earful pic.twitter.com/6DN7XowrUC
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) August 13, 2023
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The Twins ultimately won the game 3-0, dropping the Phillies to 65-54 on the season. Philadelphia wasn't in desperate need of a win, placing second in the NL East behind the MLB-leading Braves; they are currently first in the NL wild-card race.
That said, the Philly faithful clearly didn't appreciate Mackay's calls on the day. According to Umpire Scorecards, Mackay has a 94.7 percent accuracy in 2023, placing him in the 47th percentile among umpires all season.
It's a difficult job that requires split-second decisions. But Mackay's outing in the Phillies-Twins game on Sunday will only strengthen calls from fans to start implementing robot umpires.