Did Gallardo Benefit from Bad Zone?

Yovani Gallardo’s performance Saturday night was impressive — I don’t think anyone can dispute that.  What can be argued, though, is that Gallardo was helped by a less-than-stellar strike zone by umpire Rob Drake (just ask Padres fans who tried to get #robdrakesucks trending on Twitter).

I was curious to see just how accurate Drake’s calls were.  If you watched the game last night, you could see through Fox Trax that he certainly missed a few calls for both sides, but I decided to look up where each pitch was marked in ESPN’s GameCenter (I chose ESPN over MLB Gameday due to the more definitive lines drawn for the strike zone).  Click “Read More” for all the screen caps.

K #1: Gwynn strikes out looking

Yeah, that was a bad call.

K #2: Gonzalez strikes out swinging

K #3: Headley strikes out looking

K #4: Hundley strikes out swinging

K #5: Scott Hairston strikes out looking

K #6: Jerry Hairston strikes out swinging

K #7: Latos strikes out looking

K #8: Gonzalez strikes out looking

K #9: Jerry Hairston strikes out looking

K #10: Blanks strikes out swinging

K #11: Gwynn strikes out looking

To me, it looks like the only really bad calls were the two called strikeouts of Tony Gwynn, with a few other calls right on the line.