It’s pretty rare for any MLB game to go without the occasional hiccup from the umpire behind home plate. But when it happens at the very end of a game, as it did during the first game of a doubleheader between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Atlanta Braves on Thursday, it was hard for Braves broadcasters Brandon Gaudin and C.J. Nitkowski to ignore.
The Braves had a chance at the end of the game to tie or win the game in the bottom of the ninth inning with the bases loaded and two outs, trailing by one run with left fielder Eli White at the plate.
Instead, Phillies closer Jordan Romano got a rather generous strike three call from plate umpire Bruce Dreckman, which drew a strong reaction from Gaudin and Nitkowski on the call for FanDuel Sports Network South.
“And the 1-2 (pitch),” said Gaudin.
“No!” replied Nitkowski, disgusted by the strike call from Dreckman.
“Oh, that missed,” added Gaudin. “He called it a strike though to end the ballgame and the Phillies hang on. Five to four is the final.”
Jordan Romano and the Phillies held off a bases-loaded rally attempt by the Braves in a 5-4 win.
A generous strike zone from home plate umpire Bruce Dreckman helped.
C. J. Nitkowski: “No!”
Brandon Gaudin: “Oh, that missed.” ⚾️🎙️ #MLB pic.twitter.com/wQhJa1EQj1
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 29, 2025
Upon looking at the replay of the pitch, Nitkowski and Gaudin were further justified that the call was incorrect from Dreckman.
“A tough break here,” said Nitkowski. “Let’s go ahead and take a look at this slider here to Eli White. It certainly did appear to finish below the strike zone. But Jordan Romano gets the call.”
“That is close, but it is out of the zone,” added Gaudin. “Heartbreaking loss here for the Atlanta Braves in Game 1 of the doubleheader.”
One could argue that the pitch was too close for White to take. In fact, when you look at the pitch from the MLB.com pitch-tracking service, Baseball Savant, the pitch did appear to catch a good portion of the strike zone, which one fan alluded to in a post on X.
We have to get rid of the box on TV man, its so bad https://t.co/2PMpxLTogH pic.twitter.com/qHog7W7p9d
— Steve (@GhostMavGG) May 29, 2025
Still Gaudin and Nitkowski were quite convinced they had that the pitch in question was low, which is fair based on the view that they had at the time.
