Sunday's New York Yankees-Tampa Bay Rays matinee saw Max Fried take a no-hit bid into the eighth inning, only to have his bid nullified by a scorekeeper's change.
Scorekeeper Bill Matthews controversially overturned a Paul Goldschmidt error on a Chandler Simpson sixth-inning ground ball. Matthews ruled the ball "without a doubt" would have gone for a hit if Goldschmidt had fielded it cleanly.
Scorekeepers changing hits to errors, or vice versa, is nothing new. However, Matthews overturned his call in the eighth inning, with Fried only six outs away from making history.
Yankees announcer Michael Kay was understandably furious-and he immediately shared his displeasure with Matthews.
"Just unfathomable," Kay said. "Either you call it when it happens, you don't wait three innings to go by. It's just unbelievable."
YES Network cameras then showed and focused on Matthews in the Steinbrenner Field press box.
"Bill Mathews is going to have a lot of questions thrown at him, and he's going to have to give some pretty good answers," Kay added.
Kay may be in a similar situation this week, as X (formerly Twitter) users ripped him for exposing Matthews.
"[Calling] him out by name and showing him on TV like that is," read one comment. "Poor guy is going to get harassed by ridiculous fans for simply doing his job correctly."
Another added: "Calling the guy out by name is such a clown show move."
Rays right fielder Jake Mangum immediately lined a base hit to center field, removing any questions over the legitimacy of Fried's no-hit bid.
"Kay makes a point of saying the full name of the official scorekeeper so that Yankee fans can berate him for simply doing his job," one X user wrote. "Michael Kay is the absolute worst to ever do it, man."
Interestingly, Matthews had a similar controversy in 2011. According to the Seattle Times, Matthews ruled then-Rays outfielder B.J. Upton had a hit off Felix Hernandez on a ball that many, even Rays manager Joe Maddon, thought was an error.
That was the only hit Hernandez allowed through 8.1 innings before allowing a single to Sam Fuld.
"Yankees broadcast is so [expletive] amateur," one fan commented Sunday. "Doxxing an official score keeper is so soft."
