Schwarber loses his mind on Ángel Hernández, a breakdown
What Happened
On a nationally televised Sunday Night Baseball game in April 2022, Reds catcher Kyle Schwarber, wait, actually Schwarber was with the Phillies that season, ended his at-bat against Tigers closer Josh Hader by getting rung up on a called third strike from umpire Ángel Hernández in the ninth inning with his team down a run. Schwarber slammed his bat and helmet and screamed at Hernández, arguing the pitch and the previous one were nearly identical and both off the plate. Jomboy walks through a game full of questionable calls on both sides, then uses Baseball Savant to show 19 missed calls, including the back-to-back balls Hernández rang up as strikes to end Schwarber's day. Manager Joe Girardi also got into it with Hernández.
Why This Matters
The footage landed at a charged moment for Hernández. He'd sued MLB alleging racial discrimination over being passed over for crew chief and World Series assignments, and the league's own court filing argued he simply lacked the skills, which Jomboy quotes directly. That context turns a single blown call into a referendum on umpire accountability and the case for an automated strike zone. The pitches that set Schwarber off, the fifth and sixth of the at-bat, both registered as balls on Savant but were called strikes, so his fury was earned. With no replay for ball-strike calls, players have zero recourse, and that helplessness is the real story. The video fed the growing public push toward ABS challenge systems that MLB later tested in the minors and brought to spring training. Schwarber's outburst became one of the season's signature umpire moments.
At 3.7M views it ranks 32nd of 1,583 Jomboy breakdowns, landing in the top 2% of the entire catalog.
Key Moments
Who / What Is Involved
Players: Kyle Schwarber, Ángel Hernández. Teams: Reds.
Key Terms Mentioned
Full Transcript
Click timestamps to jump to that momentthis episode of Angel Hernandez is
brought to you by seatgeek previously on
Angel Hernandez if you don't know who
Angel Hernandez is well he sued mlb
because he said that he's been
discriminated against because he had not
been assigned to the world series since
2005 and have been passed over for crew
chief now mlb responded to that to the
judge and said uh he has not been
discriminated against he just [ __ ]
sucks he has not demonstrated the
leadership ability and situation
management skills in critical high
pressure roles on a consistent basis
aka he's a bad umpire but the union
protects him so he can't get rid of him
that's Angel Hernandez terry francona
manager of the indians said i just kind
of told angel why is it always happening
when you're here which is a great
question that we all know the answer to
here's a pitch that they say is in the
strike zone and angel says na ah that's
a ball and this pitch is very similar
probably a strike he says nah that's a
ball and then another one high and in
way high
shorter batter and angel says yep strike
three you're out here's all three at
once
which one do you think he called a
strike and which ones do you think he
called the ball so that's the angel
hernandez show it's sunday night
baseball nationally televised game and
they got their best ump behind the dish
psych it's the ump that they said to a
judge in court is not good at being an
umpire and that's a ball off the plate
that never was over the plate he calls
it a strike and that's a ball that never
came over the plate and he called it a
strike and i used to think angel
hernandez was just bad and just like
just guessing up there
but the amount of strike three lookings
on bad calls in this game has me
reconsidering that maybe he just likes
quick games that ball never comes back
into the zone and
that ball never comes back into the zone
and he's just calling them all
strikes
outside strike high strike outside
strike Bryce Harper's gonna slump a
little bit like a sad guy which leads us
to the ninth inning and we have
schwarber up who's been upset with the
calls already and they're down one run
haters in he's really good and that a
nice slide piece from hader called
strike the next one he's gonna get the
swinging strike on the fastball in a
hole down02 takes the slider away
doesn't bite ooh doesn't bite again at
the slider so now haters gonna come back
fastball and try to dot low and outside
ball away full count schwarber is
excited he can reach base hater wants to
do it again
does it strike three schwerberg's piss
throws the bats throws the helmet you've
been [ __ ] horse [ __ ] the whole game
over here you miss on this side you miss
up high you miss
[ __ ] for both sides it's [ __ ]
god so not happy about it not at all
[ __ ] sucks
does does suck to watch an angel
hernandez called game it does joe
girardi is to say so i'm not not
positive on these first two so i kind of
put the opacity a little bit you know a
little bit bare because i'm not positive
but it looks to me like joe says it's
not about that angel it's just bad angel
it's just so bad
you have to be better
you have to whole [ __ ] night the
whole night both sides
it's [ __ ] horseshit 30 calls
30 calls he counted them angel's like
[ __ ] did he really count them is it
really 30 calls and it's not 30 but it's
19 which is close to 20 which if you
want to exaggerate a little is 30 so
this is all the calls he missed
according to baseball savant which you
know a lot so the blue
our strikes or at least touch the zone
that he called a ball and then all the
orange ones are outside of the zone that
he called strikes so yeah just a bad job
and why was schwarber so upset on that
last one because the pitch before it and
that pitch
were very very very similar now they end
up a little different and they get
framed different but at that point when
they cross his last visual they're very
similar and according to baseball savant
pitch number five pitch number six both
balls but angel had him as strikes
so what are you gonna do cutch
just kind of shaking his head like hey i
know i'm on the other team here but i
kind of agree with that schwarber guy it
was kind of bad all night both sides
just like he said
what i don't get is why does every
single umpire have to call balls and
strikes like if you if the union is very
strong and protects Angel Hernandez and
he has to have a job as an umpire then
fine just make him the third base hump
he knows the rules and he barely gets
any action
you know the american league and the
national league now have the dh pitchers
don't hit not every ump should have to
do every position of humping because
he ain't behind the plate up he can't
call balls and strikes
so just stop making him do it is what
i'd say i'd also say if you want to go
get a game check seeky go to the app
they label tickets as good deals and bad
deals make it easy for you and if you
use code jomboy you get 20 off your
first purchase