Angel Hernandez’s missed call led to a home run in his first game back behind the plate

Longtime MLB umpire Angel Hernandez has been absent for nearly the entire season thus far after dealing with a medical matter. He made his return to big-league action this past weekend, and on Wednesday, he was back behind the plate for the first time in 2023.

It didn’t take long for a missed call to make an impact.

Now, until MLB institutes an automated strike zone (robot umps), you’re almost never going to see an umpire go an entire game without missing a call. It’s only happened once since Ump Scorecards started tracking performance. But Hernandez has a knack for impacting games with his missed calls.

With MacKenzie Gore on the mound for the Nationals, he should have gotten ahead in the count when his 1-1 pitch in the strike zone was called a ball by Hernandez. There’s a huge difference between a 2-1 count and a 1-2 count from a pitcher’s perspective, and Gore paid that price on the very next pitch. He left a 2-1 fastball up high in the zone, which Tyrone Taylor drove for a 396-foot home run.

Again, Hernandez was never going to be perfect in the game, but a missed call in that spot had to be frustrating for Gore and the Nationals.

Fans certainly didn’t have any problem piling on Hernandez for the missed call.

He’s back like he never left.