Ump caught on hot mic after Giants' Patrick Bailey's challenge: ‘Please be a strike'
Perhaps the sweltering sun prompted umpire Bill Miller, manning home plate, to beg for a reversal that might speed up Saturday's game between the San Francisco Giants and Cleveland Guardians.
Umpire Bill Miller during a baseball game between the San Francisco Giants and the Tampa Bay Rays in San Francisco, Aug. 14, 2023. (Jeff Chiu/Associated Press) SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.
– A massive heat wave fell on the Phoenix area for the final week of Cactus League, pushing start times to the evening and fans into the shady areas. Perhaps the sweltering sun prompted umpire Bill Miller, a longtime MLB ump manning home plate, to beg for an ABS (automated ball-strike system) reversal that might speed up Saturday afternoon's game between the San Francisco Giants and Cleveland Guardians. Miller's hot weather plea was caught on a hot mic.
He called a ball on Robbie Ray's 0-2 fastball to Cleveland's Alex Mooney on the lower half of the zone with two outs and the Giants up three in the fourth inning. Giants catcher Patrick Bailey challenged the call with a helmet tap; a successful challenge would have ended the inning. After Miller announced the challenge to the crowd, the microphone caught him saying "please be a strike.
" The home plate umpire got caught on hot mic saying "please be a strike" 😭😭 pic. twitter. com/U71E64xOYT - IcyVert (@IcyVert) March 21, 2026 Miller's call was correct with ABS determining it landed 0.