Brandon Belt Accuses Umpire Doug Eddings Of Making An Incorrect Call To "Get The Game Over With", Something Eddings Has Joked About Several Times In The Past

Brandon Belt of the Giants accused plate umpire Doug Eddings of calling a game-ending third strike on a pitch off the plate to "get the game over with".

The Giants trailed the Reds 6-3 in the bottom of the ninth on Wednesday night as Belt batted with a runner on second and two outs. Reds closer Raisel Iglesias's full-count pitch was clearly outside the strike zone and Eddings called a third strike. (A correct call would have sent Belt to first base and brought up Evan Longoria - who was 3-for-4 - as the potential tying run.) The game lasted 2:41.

Pitch #7:

Belt:

I think 99.9 percent of the umpires are great ... But there's just some times when you have a feeling that one or two of 'em are trying to get the game over with, whether it's through what they say or what they do. And that just can't happen; you can't have those guys affecting careers and affecting games like that. ... We had a really good hitter coming up after that who could've tied the game for us. And we never got that chance, because he calls a ball that's so far off the plate, I don't even think I could've touched it if I swung it.

Belt added that Eddings has said in the past that he tries to get through games quickly.

It's tough because you hope that an umpire doesn't affect a game like that but he did, and you're not sure if it's on purpose, either. I've heard that guy multiple times say or insinuate that he's trying to get through the game fast. And then he makes calls like that that I can't imagine that he really thought was a strike. You've got to wonder.

Crew chief Joe West, who was umpiring third base, declined to respond: "I don't comment on postgame comments and things said in anger."

Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic noted that since Eddings, a 20-year veteran, blew a dropped-third-strike call in the 2005 ALCS, he had not worked another postseason series.

Belt's accusation comes roughly two weeks after Todd Frazier of the Mets voiced his concerns about numerous blown calls in every game and MLB's apparent apathy towards the situation.

Is having plate umpires call strikes on pitches near the plate but out of the strike zone part of Commissioner Rob Manfred's agenda to speed up games?