Home plate umpire Ted Barrett seemed to have a wider than normal strike zone in last night's game five between the Tigers and the Yankees. Against left-handed batters, he appeared to be calling strikes on pitches well off the outside part of the plate.
Tigers' pitchers seemed to have benefited the most from the wide strike zone. Overall, Barrett called eleven strikes against Yankee batters that were outside of the strike zone, while only calling four against Tigers' batters. Granted, when you compare the two heat maps, you can see that Yankee pitchers didn't throw as frequently to the same outside location as Detroit pitchers. However, it is noteworthy that some of the areas do overlap showing a discrepancy in strike calls.
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