Visionworks Appt: Laz Diaz
By: Akash Rana
Last night`s home-plate umpire for the Red Sox and Astros game, Laz Dias, set the bar pretty high for this postseason with 21 missed ball-strike calls. I don`t understand how the MLB lets this man officiate this game behind home plate on the 2nd biggest stage the MLB has to offer. The Eovaldi non-call in the top of the 9th was Diaz`s 21st missed strike of the night. The Sox would`ve left the inning 2–2 with a chance to walk it off in the bottom.
The Red Sox were struggling to get hits throughout the game after the Bogaerts dinger over the Monster in the 1st inning. The Astros were able to tie the game in the 8th with a Jose Altuve solo-shot over the Monster against Whitlock.
The worst call was in the bottom of the 3rd, when J.D. Martinez “struck out” looking. The call was so outrageous that Alex Cora came out to argue the call. As you can see from the picture below, Pitch #7 was way outside and low.
Nick Pivetta was dealing through his 5 innings, throwing 65 pitches and allowing 1 run on 2 hits. It was questionable as to why he was taken out as we ran into bullpen problems into the 9th. Eovaldi in the 9th isn`t terrible, as he was our best pitcher all season long.
The Red Sox host the Astros today at Fenway for Game 5.
