There were some complaints from Pirate hitters about the strike zone in yesterday’s loss to the Cubs, specifically with called strikes away from left-handed hitters. Back to Brooks Baseball to see if their opinions were legitimate. Here are five left-handed at-bats against Carlos Zambrano that resulted in a strikeout, excluding pitcher Zach Duke.
D. Young, first inning
D. Young, third inning
N. McLouth, third inning
D. Young, fifth inning
B. Moss, sixth inning
Delwyn Young chased or bunted at every strike that was out of the zone. Brandon Moss appears to be the only one with a valid argument, as he watched pitches one sail well wide of the plate, and pitch three was borderline. Both were called strikes. Other than that, these calls seem perfectly legitimate.
Maybe there were poor calls in other at-bats. However, going by this data, it seems Zambrano was simply pounding the outside corner and having a great deal of success.
