Umpires Nic Lentz and Gabe Morales will make their World Series umpiring debuts, part of a crew led by James Hoye for the matchup between the Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays, which starts Friday night in Milwaukee. Dan Bellino, Vic Carapazza, Tripp Gibson and Jim Wolf also will work the Series. It will be the third World Series for both Hoye and Wolf, and the second each for Bellino, Carapazza and Gibson.
Morales will be the plate umpire for Friday's opener, with Lentz at first, Hoye at second, Carapazza at third, Bellino in left and Gibson in right. Wolf will work the plate in Game 2. Bellino will be the crew chief in Game 3, when Hoye is the reserve. Lentz, at 36, will be the youngest Series umpire since Pat Hoberg in 2022. He made his big league debut in 2016.
In the first season of the ABS ball/strike robot umpire system, Lentz had a 48.3% overturn rate, ninth-best among 76 umpires with 100 or more challenges, according to taptochallenge.com. Gibson was 19th at 50.4%, Morales 21st at 50.9%, Carapazza 28th at 52%, Hoye 29th at 52.3%, Wolf 39th at 53.7% and Bellino 65th at 59.9%.
Gibson, Hoye, Lentz and Morales had perfect ABS records in the Division Series, each upheld on two challenges. Hoye, 55, also worked the Series in 2019 and 2022. Gibson, 45, was behind the plate for Game 4 in 2022, the second no-hitter in World Series history. Alfonso Márquez and D.J. Reyburn will serve as video review umpires at the replay operations center in New York.
Source: ESPN MLB · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing