Once again, Angel Hernandez finds himself in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

The controversial umpire, consistently targeted for his struggles calling balls and strikes, lost again in his racial discrimination lawsuit against Major League Baseball when a federal appeals court denied Tuesday his request to reinstate the case.

Hernandez, who was born in Cuba, initially filed the lawsuit in 2017, claiming he was was discriminated against because he had not been assigned to the World Series since 2005 and had been passed over for crew chief.

Specifically, the lawsuit claimed MLB executive Joe Torre held animosity toward Hernandez dating back to his tenure as Yankees manager.

“Hernández has failed to show that the criteria Torre used in making crew chief promotion decisions caused the existing disparity between white and minority crew chiefs,” the panel wrote after hearing oral arguments June 8. “Hernández has made no showing that Torre harbors a bias against racial minorities.”

Hernandez’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for a comment by the Associated Press.

Should Hernandez want to move forward, he can ask the full New York-based 2nd Circuit to rehear the case or for the U.S. Supreme Court to review it.

Hernandez, who turns 62 next week, has been an MLB umpire since 1993.

He’s missed most of the 2023 season due to a back injury and only recently returned to work in late July.

Since then, Hernandez has already been targeted for his work behind the plate.

In his first game back calling balls and strikes in a big league ballpark, Hernandez took heat for one specific decision in the Nationals-Brewers matinee Aug. 2.

As Washington starter MacKenzie Gore was pitching to Milwaukee outfielder Tyrone Taylor in the second inning, Hernandez’s poor call on a pitch at the bottom of the zone had an immediate effect on both the game and the tenor of the announcer’s commentary.

After Hernandez called a 95-mph fastball at Taylor’s knees a ball, the light-hitting outfielder, who owns just a .478 OPS this season, took the next pitch deep to left field for a home run to put Milwaukee ahead.

“You cannot miss this bad. That’s a couple balls on the plate and up, and he’s gonna get balled up on that?” MASN analyst Kevin Frandsen said.

The Nationals came back to win, 3-2, after a wild walk-off error by the Brewers.

Four days later, Hernandez was behind the plate at Yankee Stadium for the finale of a four-game set between the Yankees and Astros.

The embattled umpire stopped play during the top of the sixth inning to call a balk on Yankees lefty Wandy Peralta, much to the dismay of YES play-by-play announcer Michael Kay.

“Of course. Angel Hernandez is involved; he’s going to impact himself on the game,” Kay said, annoyed that the home plate umpire was making the call.

Peralta and the Yankees went on to lose the game, 9-7.

There is a history of bad blood between Hernandez and the Yankees.

Hernandez was removed from the 2018 World Series for a pitiful performance in the Yankees-Red Sox ALDS Game 3 when he missed three simple calls at first base, all of which were overturned after video review.

While it is a small sample set since he’s been calling games for just a few weeks, Hernandez has the second-worst accurate call percentage among all MLB umpires this season, according to Umpscorecards.com, checking in at 91.4 percent.