Twins fans hoping for better decisions from the home plate umpire for a pivotal elimination game were sorely disappointed after the Twins’ 3-2 season-ending loss to the Astros Wednesday night.
In a trend that followed the Twins throughout the playoffs, Minnesota’s opponent was favored by the ump’s missed calls, according to analytical service Umpire Scorecards. Home plate umpire Jansen Visconti had an overall accuracy of 95 percent during Wednesday night’s game. While Visconti had a 98 percent accuracy on called balls and a 90 percent accuracy on called strikes, his decisions tended to favor the Astros to the tune of 0.48 runs created based on the calls.
Umpire: Jansen Visconti
Final: Astros 3, Twins 2#Ready2Reign // #MNTwins#HOUvsMIN // #MINvsHOU#PostseasonMore stats for this game 👇https://t.co/78banR9yVK pic.twitter.com/qXBSSmDdil
— Umpire Scorecards (@UmpScorecards) October 12, 2023
In six playoff games, the Twins had 18 strikes incorrectly called against them, according to Pitch Profiler. That was tied for the most of any playoff team and the 20 strikes that were incorrectly called balls against Twins pitchers was the most of any playoff team. That’s a grand total of 38 calls against them. Texas was No. 2 with 27 calls going against them.
Twins hitters saw 18 strikes incorrectly called against them throughout the Postseason, tied for the most.
Pitchers had 20 strikes incorrectly called balls, which is the most.
In total, they had 38 incorrect calls against them, by far the most. Texas is next at 27.
Yikes🤖 pic.twitter.com/MZLahY4GIv
— Pitch Profiler (@pitchprofiler) October 12, 2023
The most impactful miss of Game 4 was the called third strike on Max Kepler that ended the sixth inning, leaving one runner stranded.
Umpire Jansen Visconti missed 12 calls in the #Twins #Astros #ALDS game 3.
9 of them went against the Twins, including this called strikeout that should've put the tying run in scoring position. pic.twitter.com/IcWYpdXXP1
— Umpire Auditor (@UmpireAuditor) October 12, 2023
Overall, in the four games between Minnesota and Houston, the umpires favored the Astros by a combined 1.37 created runs, with the Astros getting the favorable calls in three of the four games. The only game the umps leaned towards the Twins was Houston’s 9-1 blowout of Minnesota in which the umps created 0.31 runs more for the Twins.
Umpire: Bill Miller
Final: Astros 9, Twins 1#Ready2Reign // #MNTwins#HOUvsMIN // #MINvsHOU#PostseasonMore stats for this game 👇https://t.co/9jbxPmY9dv pic.twitter.com/vex4HAGTor
— Umpire Scorecards (@UmpScorecards) October 11, 2023
The Twins can’t just solely blame poor umpiring as the team went a combined 4-28 with runners in scoring position while batting .198, including just three hits in both Game 3 and Game 4.
