"This is atrocious, ruining baseball" - Fans furious after Dodgers vs Padres clash sees error-filled umpire performance from Laz Diaz

Laz Diaz is a veteran MLB umpire but his performance behind the plate in the second game of the series between the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers was one of his worst this season. The game ended 11-1 in favour of the Padres but Diaz took away most of the headlines.

During the game, as per X's Umpire Scorecards account, Diaz had an overall accuracy of 87% which was off from the league average of 94%. He called 10 out of 40 true balls as strikes which is 13% lower than the league average. It favoured the Padres and aided +0.28 runs to their score.

Andy Pages' at-bat against San Diego starter Dylan Cease in the top of the second inning was of note as Diaz called a strike on a ball that was way off the mark.

Fans were surprised at Diaz's efforts and took to social media to give their reactions.

Comment byu/JianClaymore from discussion inbaseball

"Seeing shit like this pisses me off as a fan/spectator. How can position players still not want ABS implemented? And don't hit me with the removing human elements from the game argument bullshit. This is atrocious and ruining baseball," an angry fan commented.

"Laz does what Laz wants," antother fan wrote.

"I know he was atrocious last night but didn't expect it to be this bad," a fan reacted to the scorecard.

"75% called strike accuracy is nuts. You shouldn’t be allowed behind the plate with that," another fan exclaimed.

"Why does this guy have a job again? Doesn’t add up," a fan said.

"It's going to be so satisfying to see them lose their jobs to a computer," another fan made his feelings known.

Laz Diaz's atrocious night comes after creating MLB record last week

Last year Angel Hernandez made one of the worst calls in MLB history when he called strike on Texas Rangers' Wyatt Langford on a pitch that was 6.78 inches outside the strike zone. This led to backlash against the veteran who had been under the pump for many years for his egregious errors.

Last week in a game between the Rangers and the Tampa Bay Rays, Tyler Mahle's pitch to Jake Magnum was called strike by Laz Diaz, that set a new record surpassing Hernandez's record by 0.05 inches.

Diaz performance has increased calls for the Automatic Strike Zone system that the MLB is planning to introduce.