Pitch Counts Falling Among Most Umpires

Umpires union head John Hirschbeck is baseball’s pitch-count winner this season.

Hirschbeck is averaging 272 pitches per nine innings, according to STATS Inc., which supplies box scores for the Associated Press and examined statistics through Monday. That’s the lowest average among umpires who have worked five or more games behind the plate.

Scott Higgins had the highest average at 305, and Angel Hernandez was at 304.

Hernandez’s average increased by 22 from last season, the biggest jump among umpires. according to STATS Inc. The averages for Laz Diaz and Ed Montague increased by 11 each.

There were 17 increases among umpires, 54 decreases and three whose pitch counts stayed essentially the same.

Sandy Alderson, the executive vice president of baseball operations in the commissioner’s office, wants some umpires to lower their pitch counts to about 270. That prompted the umpires union to file a grievance last weekend, saying it “threatens the integrity of the game.”

Union chief Donald Fehr said he’s looking into umpires’ claims that major league baseball is pressuring them to call more strikes.

Fehr said the players union will decide whether it should also file a grievance.

“The umpires feel strongly about this,” he said. “It’s something we need to take a hard look at.”

Ichiro Suzuki and Kazuhiro Sasaki of the Seattle Mariners are talking to reporters from Japan again.

The American League all-stars, key factors in the Mariners’ 67-26 start, lifted their vows of silence after Monday night’s 5-3 loss to Arizona.

“It’s not that we forgave them,” Sasaki said. “We just thought that not talking wasn’t going to solve any problems. We still want to make sure we have our privacy.”

Suzuki, rookie right fielder for the Mariners, and Sasaki, Seattle’s second-year closer, stopped talking to the Japanese media Thursday night because paparazzi from Japan have been going to their residences in the Seattle area.

Cleveland pitcher Chuck Finley went to visit Angel physician Lewis Yocum in California to seek medical advice on recurring problems that have put him on the disabled list twice. Finley was on the disabled list from June 2-20 with back spasms. On June 29, the Indians put Finley back on the DL because of neck and shoulder spasms. . . . Scott Elarton, 4-8 this year after winning 17 games for the Houston Astros last year, was put on the 15-day DL after medical tests showed tendinitis in his right biceps. . . . Joe Mauer, the top pick in June’s amateur draft, agreed on most points of a contract with Minnesota that calls for a signing bonus of just more than $5 million. . . . Atlanta first baseman Rico Brogna, who had announced last week he would quit the game at the end of the season to coach high school football in Connecticut, instead announced his retirement before the Braves’ game against Tampa Bay.