Diamondbacks at Dodgers, 6/8/2015

**To learn about "Zone Score" & "Game Score", please see this post.**

Umpires

HP Will Little

1B Phil Cuzzi

2B Gerry Davis

3B Tony Randazzo

Pitchers

Dodgers: Bolsinger, Howell, Ravin

Padres: De La Rosa, Ramirez

Zone Score & Game Score for Will Little

Standard Strike-Zone

Dodgers v. LHH (DLSZ): 0

Dodgers v. RHH (DRSZ): +3

Diamondbacks v. LHH (OLSZ): +3

Diamondbacks v. RHH (ORSZ): +3

Adjusted Strike-Zone

Dodgers v. LHH (DLAZ): 0

Dodgers v. RHH (DRAZ): 0

Diamondbacks v. LHH (OLAZ): -4

Diamondbacks v. RHH (ORAZ): 0

GAME SCORE 

Standard Strike-Zone Game Score: -3

Adjusted Strike-Zone Game Score: +4

Notes:

So how does an umpire have a negative Standard Game Score and a positive Adjusted Game Score? Well in this case, Will Little had an interesting game calling balls and strikes. His zone was very consistent horizontally and he did not give the typical Adjusted 'corners'. Vertically, he had a huge zone, and called 12 strikes that were low and out of the zone. His Adjusted strike-zone numbers are basically the result of his conservative horizontal zone balancing out his low zone.

I am sure that data guys that work for the Dodgers are well aware of this, but Will Little seems to be the type of umpire that you would definitely account for in your pre-game planning. Attack Low!

The biggest reason that the Dodgers ended up with more breaks (+4) from Little is because D'Back pitching got only 1 of 9 strike calls on balls in the expanded corners of the Adjusted strike-zone. Dodger pitching only missed 3 calls by hitting the same areas. 

Called Pitches to LH Hitters
AZ=∆ 

Called Pitches to RH Hitters
AZ=∆

The only mistakes Little made that were not consistent with his zone were:

Strike 2 to De La Rosa in the third inning (0-1 count, 2 outs, nobody on, LI 0.45)

Ravin probably should have gotten a strike with this first pitch to Pennington in the ninth
(0-0 count, 1 out, nobody on, LI 0.01)

So as you can see, even though Will Little made some really - really - low strike calls...

Called Strikes 2 & 3 to Bolsinger were
particularly bad.

... he was consistent. That is really all you can ask for and if you are aware of it you can plan and take advantage of it.

Close Calls & Reviews:

There were not any challenges or reviews in the game. With the Dodgers out in front for the entire game, it would be tough to call anything controversial. Let's hope it happens again tonight!