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The Yankees got a little bit of help defeating the Angels on Wednesday night, 1-0, as Mark Leiter Jr. closed it out, with home plate umpire Ben May giving a rather generous called strike three to end the game with the tying run on base.
“It was bad. I didn’t know it was that far off the plate until I just saw it,” Angels manager Ron Washington said after his team landed on the wrong end of a sweep.
He added: “It is difficult to accept, but from our vantage point, the pitch looked like it had height. I just seen it inside and (the catcher) snatched it back.”
The 2-2 slider from Leiter went about six inches off the outside corner to right-handed hitter Logan O’Hoppe while the Angels had a man on first.
O’Hoppe immediately protested the call as the Yankees came together to celebrate their fifth straight victory on this three-city road trip.
Yankees catcher J.C. Escarra said the pitch was “definitely a ball.”
FanDuel announcer Mark Gubicza could not believe May called the pitch a strike.
“That was a horrible call. Horrible call,” Gubicza said on the broadcast.
May is typically a very accurate home plate umpire, ranking No. 15 of 88 qualified MLB umpires in terms of correctly called strike percentages with a 94.91 percent accuracy rate, according to Ump Scorecards.
Wednesday’s 1-0 win saw the Yankees score in the first inning on an Anthony Volpe sacrifice fly.
The series sweep drops the Angels to 25-30, while the Yankees are a robust 35-20.
The Yankees are off Thursday before Friday’s heavyweight battle as they stay on the West Coast to play the Dodgers in a World Series rematch.