Ex-Tigers vet calls out awful home plate umpire from ALDS Game 2 vs Guardians

Thanks to another huge outing for Tarik Skubal and a decisive three-run homer for Kerry Carpenter in Game 2 of the Tigers-Guardians ALDS, everything worked out for Detroit in the end. But it was hard not to notice during the game that home plate umpire Ramon De Jesus was being ... shall we say ... erratic with his calls throughout.

The most glaring miss was probably the very last pitch of the game, thrown by Beau Brieske to David Fry in a 2-2 count. There were no men on, and the Guardians looked like they were giving up with how easily the first two batters were sat down, but Fry still had a chance to get on and keep Cleveland's hopes alive.

Brieske threw his fastball, which ended up 3.08 inches below the zone. Jake Rogers is an elite defensive catcher with similarly elite framing abilities, but even that one looked beyond the pale. Nonetheless, De Jesus punched him out, killing the Guardians' last hope.

But it wasn't just the Tigers that benefitted from De Jesus' bloated strike zone; in fact, Umpire Scorecards figured that he favored the Guardians by +0.2 runs, with two impactful missed calls on Skubal in the third and fifth.

Overall, De Jesus missed 17 calls, and his last strike call on Fry was the second worst in the playoffs so far. Former Tiger Cameron Maybin wasn't having it, and he took to Twitter to air his grievances, writing, "I'm still mind blown Ramon is even working the playoffs."

Cameron Maybin airs his frustrations about Tigers-Guardians Game 2 umpire Ramon De Jesus' multiple missed calls

According to Umpire Auditor, De Jesus had a 86.6% correct called strike rate, landing him in the bottom 2% of all games this year. Per Umpire Scorecards, which tends to be a little more generous with their ratings, De Jesus' strike zones have looked wildly inconsistent throughout the year. During Monday's game, he had an 89% rate, well below league average at 94%.

De Jesus made his ump debut in 2016, and he developed a reputation for being ejection-happy in 2017. (He ejected Mets manager Carlos Mendoza in the last week of the regular season this year, when De Jesus blew a call that led to a strikeout in a Brewers win.) He's only ever called two other postseason games, and with his showing on Monday, it's pretty easy to see why.

Again, everything worked out in the Tigers' favor eventually, but both teams were still slighted multiple times. All credit still has to go to Skubal and Carpenter for winning this game, but Skubal definitely didn't have an ump capable of meeting even league averages while present behind the dish.