Jacob deGrom was locked in a battle with Gleyber Torres and needed to get out of the inning clean. He threw a fastball inside that looked like a strike, but the ump called it ball three, shifting the count to 3-0 instead of 2-1. deGrom wasn’t thrilled. He tried to bounce back, got a strike on the outside, then another swing and miss to make it full count. On the payoff pitch, he painted low at 97 mph. Again, called a ball. deGrom didn’t argue, but he clearly wasn’t hiding his frustration. Manager Bruce Bochy came out and pulled him from the game. As deGrom walked off, he still vented a little about the strike zone, feeling he got squeezed on both calls.
After the at-bat, the umpire wrote something down, likely noting the borderline calls. The breakdown dove into the numbers, pulling data from Baseball Savant. It showed that the inside fastball deGrom threw, with its exact plate location, had only been called a ball once — in this game. Since 2008, there had been 65 pitches in the same spot, and 64 of them were called strikes. As for the 3-2 pitch down in the zone, it was harder to evaluate since strike zones vary with each batter. But looking at similar pitches to Torres, the data showed three called balls and two strikes on that exact location. So maybe a borderline call, but not as egregious as the 2-0 pitch.
Bottom line, deGrom had good reason to be upset. He missed a chance to finish off the inning because of two close calls that history says should’ve gone his way.