Dominican Republic loses the WBC on an awful strike 3 call, a breakdown

ninth and we're going to highlight some

nasty pitching and then some

questionable umpiring. Now, all three of

those first pitches from Mason Miller

were fast balls and they were all up.

They were higher. The first one's pretty

center cut. That's just what I used to

call and I like to call an FU fastball.

Here's my heater. I dare you get a hit.

The next one, he's going to go even

higher. Still in the zone, though.

Again, a swing and miss. So, now he's

going to go even higher and see if he'll

chase way up top. And he does, but he

fouls it off. What he's done is he's

climbed a ladder and raised the batter's

eye level and sped up his bat because

he's got to keep up with 100 mile hour

fast balls. And what do you do when you

have a guy eyeing the top of the zone

and his bat sped up? You throw a nasty

slider, just a nasty slider, and he

swings over it and then he tries to get

in the way of the throw. And Bryce

Harper says, "Come on, man. That's not

cool." And he's like, "I'm just trying

to win." You know, I was a You're just

trying to get in the way. It's baseball

after all. A lot of batters do this. I

think usually they do it right there and

do a big banana peel. And I think Junior

Camero kind of realized like, "Oh, wait.

I'm supposed to get in the way of the

throw." And then did it a little late.

And Harper was like, "Come on." But

that's base that that's baseball. You

try to get in the way. Uh here are those

two pitches again. That's the first fast

ball and that's the slider. And you're

like, "Why are you swinging at that

dude? It bounced before the plate." It's

because when you overlay them and you

have to protect the fastball, you're

thinking, "Oh my god, he just threw a

low fast ball in the zone. I got to hit

it." And then it falls off the face of

the earth and you swing above it. It's

just nasty pitching. Anyway, next batter

comes up. We got Julio Rodriguez, JRod.

And Mason Miller wants to flip the

script and go slider first, but he

misses inside. Tries to do it again.

Misses again, then the fast up top. It's

3 and 0. Hits that one. It's three and

one, but with count leverage, you don't

chase the fastball. When you're in

control of the atbat, you just say,

"Nah, I'm not chasing that because I

don't have two strikes on me and I don't

need to." So now you got the tying run

on first base, speed on the base paths.

Hard to double up, especially when you

also have speed in the batters box. Oh

yeah, you tell him pitcher. Now I don't

know what this kid says and it pains me

because I want to know what he says and

I like doing the fan lip readings, but

every now and then I just say you guys,

one of you, one of you guys will comment

what he's saying and I will feel dumb

and it will take you five minutes. I

have the first word as yo and the last

word as pitcher and I can't for the life

of me figure out what he's yelling.

So you guys are going to let me know and

make me feel bad about myself

afterwards. Anyway, they have a mound

visit and you can see Will Smith is

looking at the uh scouting report and

they're going over it and they're

saying, "Should we throw the nasty fast

ball you throw? How about the nasty

slider? Maybe we mix in a change up cuz

he's lefty. What do you think?" and

she's just waiting patiently and she's

happy because she thinks they're going

to tie the game. He's bored. He's like,

"Come on." Now Andy Pettic comes out,

gives him pats on the chest, you know?

Hey, you got it, buddy. You got it. You

know, you're right. Okay. And that makes

him feel great cuz Andy's got a cool

accent and it sounds very nice. And then

Andy runs off the field to prove that

he's still God. He's still young,

youthful, and spry. And now O'Neal

cruises up and he's ready, and he's

staring intently. And they try to go

slider again. It's off Will Smith's

glove, spins away, and now the tying run

is on second base. So, that's the last

three breaking balls he's thrown have

backed up on him and just kind of went

astray, never broke sharply back in that

one off of Will Smith's glove. And you

can see, bam. Uh, just kind of misread

it. It's a bad pitch. And bounces away.

Now the tying runs on second and the

double play isn't in order at all even

if it was. And there's a fast ball up

top and a big swing and a miss. Then

they go to the change up. It does

nothing. Fast ball right down the

middle. Watch it again. I mean this one

right here. That is an FU fastball.

Here's my heater. I dare you to hit it.

I just watched Sandlot recently with my

son. It felt great to have it back in

rotation. Great movie. Okay, here we go.

It's two and two. Bobby Wit cracking his

knuckles. Little anxiety. Little

fidgety. Come on. Hit me the ball. I

want to do something. Thank you very

much. We'll go to first with it. And

we'll get him out. And it's closer than

anyone thought or wanted it to be. But

now the tying run is on third base.

There's two outs. We got the tying run.

Just a quick look over. See if he can

get him or not. Nope. We'll go to first.

And closer than you think because they

got speed. Speed everywhere. Tying run

on third. Two outs. Semifinal game. It's

all building to this. Perdomo's up.

First pitch, fast ball above the zone.

Second pitch, fast ball in the zone.

College called strike. Let's take a look

at the difference between these two.

They seem similar enough, especially

when you don't have the box in front of

you that we have on TV. Uh but when you

do watch them, one lower, one above, one

above, one clips the top. One and one is

the count. Another one fast ball right

down the middle. I dare you to hit it.

Now he's thinking he's going to go

breaking ball there. and he's sitting on

the breaking ball saying, "I'm going to

clobber it. I'm going to call my pitch.

I'm gonna get it. If I don't, it's just

strike two." And it was just strike two.

But that was a good fast ball to hit if

he was sitting fast ball. Sodto's on his

feet. He's yelling. Down to their last

strike. What is Miller going to go with?

Here's the pitch. Outside fastball.

Loves it. Kept his hip in. Two and two.

The next one. That is a perfect pitch.

Exactly where he wants that to be.

Perdomo doesn't even consider it. Look

at this pitch.

That's an away slider. He's trying to

just clip that zone.

If it hangs and it gets in there for a

strike, that's awesome. If he chases it,

that's ideal. He's going to swing right

over it. That is a beautiful pitch.

Good job by Purdomo to work the at bat.

We got clapping. We got praying. We got

hoping. It's a full count. goes back to

the fast ball up top. It's fouled back.

So, he moved his ey line lower with the

breaking ball, then went up top with the

fast ball. And now, what's he gonna do?

Is he gonna go to the breaking ball?

He's going to go low. No, it's another

FU fast ball right down the middle.

Straight velocity. Fouled back. Now

you've got him even more sped up. You

can drop the breaking ball in. And he

does. IT'S BALL STRIKE THREE. And US

wins on a crazy call.

a crazy strike three call. It's not how

you want big games to end, especially

when you're about to go into a year

where you can challenge pitches and say,

"Nahuh, Blue, we think you got it

wrong." So, sadness abounds for the DR

as they lose. Look at this pitch. And it

breaks and it's well under the plate.

The umpire,

nice little delay and then punches him

and Perdomo can't believe it. He started

walking across the plate to throw his

bat to the dugout because it's BALL

FOUR. OH,

I can't believe it. Look at the Dr's

dugout. Their reactions

and where the ball is. Look where this

ball is.

I mean, his front foot is well ahead of

home plate. So, his back leg is probably

closer

to where home plate is. And uh that is

pretty low. Everyone over there got a

good look at it because the ball's in

front of them and it is unfortunately

strike three. Even this fan knew it. You

can see him. He's like, "Hey man, you

know, oh yeah, dude, you see that?" Even

I could see that ball was low, you know.

He's like, "Yeah, yeah, I'm sad." And

Codifi tweeted that there have been 322

called strikes in the last two World

Baseball Classics. And this was the

lowest of them all by two in 3.7 in

below home plate. And here's a look at

all the calls the umpire had to make in

the shadow zone all game. 49 pitches.

And these were all of his calls. And

according to the chart, he missed seven.

One of them came in the third inning.

Just one. The rest all kept growing as

the game went on. The sixth, the

seventh, the eighth, and then three in

the ninth. So, I don't know if that's

tired eyes. I don't know what's going

on, but here's all the ones he missed.

This was the first one in the third. He

missed that inside. Called it a strike.

This one to Vlatty in the sixth, and

that's low. It's a fast ball. I think

that's marginal. I think those happen. I

actually I think like no human can call

these. So, I'm not really putting the

onus on the umpire. I just think that

they should be reviewed if they're in

the shadow zone once we get the

technology it quick enough. That's

another fast ball by Bedar that those

get called when we have ABS. I think

those ones the batter might not even tap

or they might. These breaking balls

though, they were unfortunately very

missed. That is well under the zone and

it's the hard breaking ball that's

fooling them. And that is away from

Dval. That one goes against Team USA.

And this one is really bad as well from

Dval. That's way off the plate. Was

never really on it. But this one is the

worst. End of the game, man. Even Miller

doesn't celebrate it because I don't

think he thinks it's going to be a

strike. Just up and down. And the fact

that it goes up kind of tricks the

umpire and by the time it's down. And

that one's even harder, man. So, we got

robbed of a great ending. And that's a

bummer. It was a good game, though. This

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