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It has been widely reported that fans at Nationals Park began chanting “Lock him up!” with Donald Trump in attendance for Game 5 of the World Series. What hasn’t been widely reported is Nationals fans began chanting that same phrase in the direction of umpire Lance Barksdale after he made a couple very bad calls to the detriment of the home team.
One of the most egregious no-calls came in the bottom of the 6th inning when Nationals pitcher Tanner Rainey should have been awarded a strikeout on Michael Brantley. Instead, Barksdale called ball and in a mic’d up exchange, he seemed to blame Nats catcher Yan Gomes for springing up too quickly to throw the ball around the horn: “Oh, so it’s my fault?” Gomes could be heard saying, sarcastically.
https://twitter.com/Jomboy_/status/1188637839707250688?s=20
Then, in the 7th, Barksdale called strike 3 on a full count pitch to Victor Robles that was clearly high and outside, extinguishing a potential two out rally. Robles tossed the bat back toward Barksdale in disgust.
Victor Robles was just the victim of another blown call by Lance Barksdale#WorldSeries pic.twitter.com/IwhFS5JWag
— Umpire Auditor (@UmpireAuditor) October 28, 2019
Poor Lance took a beating on Twitter following a controversial performance on baseball’s biggest stage.
What a godawful call by Lance Barksdale on strike three. (6) pic.twitter.com/ShGtLutG1H
— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) October 28, 2019
Via https://t.co/74A2QGSpW3, not a good night at all for home plate ump Lance Barksdale, especially on the outer edge of the zone to righty hitters (plot is from the ump's POV) pic.twitter.com/jpqwDYa8tS
— Jay Jaffe (@jay_jaffe) October 28, 2019
Lance Barksdale should be shown these pitch graphs and have to answer to them afterwards
— PeteOnSports (@PeteMedhurst) October 28, 2019
Trying to understand Lance Barksdale’s strike zone tonight. Failing.
— David Aldridge (@davidaldridgedc) October 28, 2019
Look, being an umpire is hard. I am not quick to criticize someone who has to make a judgement call on 90+ mph pitches that all land within inches of each other.
That being said, Lance Barksdale has no idea where the strike zone is.
— Matt Weyrich (@ByMattWeyrich) October 28, 2019
Lance Barksdale adding to the case for robot umpires. Always thought his name would be awesome for a dog soap opera.
— T.J. Quinn (@TJQuinnESPN) October 28, 2019
I definitely paid multiple hundreds of dollars to watch Lance Barksdale play "interpretive strike zone."
— Jonathan Feng (@jonfeng1) October 28, 2019
Keep in mind the Nats last 7-1, so any error by the umpire is ultimately inconsequential when you can’t record any runs.