Bob Davidson Has A Large Strike Zone

The you-know-what really hit the fan last night during the bottom of the fifth inning of the Boston Red Sox – Tampa Bay Rays game last night. The game was moving along and then home plate umpire Bob Davidson’s (A dead ringer for Robert Duval in Falling Down) strike zone got big — I mean really large.

With one out in the frame, Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester struck out Gabe Kapler on a pitch about six inches outside the zone. It was a call right out of the Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux strike zone back in the mid-90’s. Kapler argued, but walked away without much fanfare.

After a Jason Bartlett walk, up came Carl Crawford and that’s when things got heated. Lester threw a pitch that was maybe six to eight inches off the plate that was called a strike. Below you will see where the pitch was according to FOX TRAX:

The pitch was almost in the right-handed batter’s box and unlike Kapler, Crawford wasn’t going to walk away. Crawford argued and argued and was eventually tossed by Davidson. Rays’ manager Joe Maddon came out to try to break up the argument between Crawford and Davidson, but was tossed in a nano-second.

I didn’t mind the Crawford ejection as there might have been a bump involved and Crawford wouldn’t let it go. However the Maddon ejection was completely unwarranted.

I hate when umpires think they are bigger than the game and that is exactly what happened when Davidson ejected Maddon. There was no reason for it and Davidson initiated the argument.

Bob Davidson was having a bad night, but made things worse when he sent Maddon to the showers.

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