Jen Pawol made history last August as the first woman to umpire a regular-season MLB game, and she's been climbing the ranks ever since. On the field for a Padres-Blue Jays clash, she found herself at the center of not one but two separate controversies in the span of a few innings, and by the end of it both dugouts wanted her head.
It started when Pawol ruled that Padres infielder Sung-Mun Song didn't get his replay challenge in on time after a disputed call. That set off hitting coach Steven Souza Jr., who got tossed arguing the ruling. The gap between the original call and the disallowed challenge became the whole ballgame for a minute, with fans zooming in on just how fast the window actually closed.
THE TINY AMOUNT OF TIME BETWEEN THE ACTUAL STRIKE CALL AND THE DISALLOWED CHALLENGE MY GOODNESS https://t.co/iIPos1dUyB
That alone would've been enough drama for one afternoon. But Pawol wasn't done. Later in the game she called a balk on Kevin Gausman, a call that forced in a run and sent Blue Jays manager John Schneider into a fury of his own. So in the same game, Pawol managed to eject a Padres coach and enrage a Blue Jays manager and his ace, a rare feat of getting both benches heated on completely separate plays.
Padres and Blue Jays were both upset with umpire Jen Pawol First she ejected Padres hitting coach Steven Souza Jr. after ruling that Sung-Mun Song didn't challenge in time, then Kevin Gausman and John Schneider were mad after she called a balk to force in a run https://t.co/Chzg9hv4F7
Balk calls are already among the most argued rulings in baseball because the definition is notoriously subjective, umpires are watching for a hitch, a flinch, anything that gives a pitcher an unfair edge on a runner. Forcing in a run off one is about as game-altering as it gets, which explains why Schneider wasn't exactly measured in his reaction.
Pawol has been under a bigger microscope than most umpires since her call-up, every borderline decision gets replayed, dissected and turned into content within minutes. That's the reality of being the first woman to ump in the big leagues, but it also means a night like this, two controversial rulings against two different teams, was always going to blow up online regardless of who was wearing the mask.
Neither the Padres nor the Blue Jays are going to let this one go quietly. Expect pool reports, postgame quotes about the strike zone and the balk mechanics, and probably another round of debate about instant replay windows being too tight for coaches to actually use them in real time.