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Los Angeles Dodgers 1, Colorado Rockies 0: Marty Foster, Dodgers beat Rockies

Marty Foster helped the Dodgers out with a floating strike zone in pivotal moments, stopping the Rockies from taking their first four-game series in Los Angeles since 1993.

Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports

Home plate umpire Marty Foster had a terrible day at the office. His floating strike zone was a point of contention for Rockies players all afternoon, resulting in arguments with Rafael Ynoa and Nolan Arenado, and an ejection of Charlie Blackmon in arguably the most pivotal moment of the game.

The Rockies had multiple runners on for the first (and only) time all game with runners at first at third and Charlie Blackmon -- who is second in the team in WAR -- at the plate. Blackmon worked the count to 1-1 and then Foster made one of the worst strike calls I have seen in a long time:

Not only was the ball three inches out of the strike zone, it was three inches high which is an area that umpires often don't give even inside the zone. The high strike is often not given. On top of all that, the pitch missed location by about a foot a required a big reach from catcher Yasmani Grandal.

The 1-1 count became 1-2, and the next pitch being in a similar location forced Charlie to expand his zone, swinging, missing, and then getting tossed while he was walking back toward the dugout.

Foster later called this gem against Carlos Gonzalez:

And then proceeded to give Rafael Ynoa this treatment in the top of the eighth:

The Dodgers got on the board in the bottom of the fourth with a Grandal single that just snuck under the glove of Rafael Ynoa at second base, scoring Adrian Gonzalez who had singled and moved to second on a walk to Justin Turner. And as it turned out, that was all they would need.

Kyle Kendrick had an excellent outing, pitching seven innings and giving up only the one run on three hits.

Daniel Descalso had his third straight game with two hits. He is six for his last nine.

The Rockies had trouble stringing hits together, to be sure, but considering they started the game without Troy Tulowtizki, Corey Dickerson, or DJ LeMahieu (not to mention Justin Morneau) the played a tough game today and it's hard to see them lose this way.


Source: FanGraphs

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