Bryce Harper calls out umpire Phil Cuzzi's late-inning disaster that cost Phillies

The Philadelphia Phillies' record at Oracle Park isn't very good. In fact, at 7-26 (.212) since 2014, it's downright atrocious. So when umpire Phil Cuzzi took it upon himself to directly affect the outcome of Monday's series opener against the San Francisco Giants, needless to say, nobody on the Phillies' side, including Bryce Harper, was happy.

Despite All-Star snub Cristopher Sánchez dealing another gem, holding the Giants to one run over seven innings with eight strikeouts, the Phillies lost 3-1. While the 69-year-old Cuzzi was egregiously bad behind home plate, with some blatantly bad missed calls to the Giants' benefit, the Phillies also didn't do themselves any favors by going 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position and stranding seven runners on base.

But anytime an umpire affects a game so obviously, it's hard not to wonder how the game would have turned out with some level of competence.

Bryce Harper responds to Phil Cuzzi's ump show that 'took over the game' against the Phillies

After the game, Harper, who went 1-for-3 with a single, responded to Cuzzi's highly questionable home plate umpiring. The Phillies first baseman called out MLB's oldest umpire for taking over the game, per MLB.com's Todd Zolecki.

"I felt really good where I was. I thought I was going to be in some good counts," Harper said, per Zolecki. "I thought I was going to be in some good situations, but sometimes that happens. The umpire took over the game. … I didn’t really say anything to him when I walked off the first time on the strike three that was up. I just told him he missed it. I respect Phil. I like Phil a lot, but obviously it doesn’t help us in those situations."

It's no secret that Harper has been struggling at the plate. The two-time MVP is 4-for-20 with 10 strikeouts since returning from the wrist inflammation that kept him out of action for close to a month. So he didn't need Cuzzi helping the Giants' pitchers.

Here's Cuzzi's Umpire Scorecard, showing how his poor performance affected the outcome:

And here's how it happened, in all the gory detail.

Harper, Phillies on the wrong end of Phil Cuzzi's brutal night behind home plate

Cuzzi got things going during Harper's fifth-inning at-bat. With two outs and a runner on first, the veteran umpire called a third strike on a sinker from Giants starter Landon Roupp that was clearly out of the zone, up and away. Harper wasn't happy and let Cuzzi know he missed it before heading back to the dugout.

But Cuzzi was just getting warmed up.

Harper was again the recipient of Cuzzi's next meltdown in the eighth. With the game tied 1-1, Kyle Schwarber led off the inning with a single. Then, in a scene that was hard to believe as it played out before our eyes, four phantom strike calls (three of which were nowhere near the zone) were called against Harper, dramatically changing the course of his at-bat. He ended up grounding out, and the Phillies couldn't do anything with the late-inning baserunner.

Cuzzi topped that performance in the bottom of the eighth with an even harder-to-believe sequence of missed calls. Orion Kerkering, the Phillies' best reliever, entered the game and promptly hit Willy Adames. It was the next at-bat against Matt Chapman that got Phillies nation riled up.

After Kerkering got a pair of called strikes, Cuzzi's contacts must have fallen out. Or maybe he got some dirt in his eyes. Perhaps he just went completely blind.

The Phillies right-hander pounded three four-seam fastballs that were legitimate strikes — two of them were well in the zone — but Cuzzi refused to call a third strike on Chapman. The Giants third baseman then punched a single to right field on the seventh pitch of the at-bat, moving Adames, the eventual winning run, to third.

Despite Harper's diplomatic approach following the Phillies' loss, it was a perfect case study and advertisement for the soon-to-be-implemented ABS challenge system, which could come as soon as next season (subscription required), per The Athletic's Evan Drellich.

If there was a challenge system in place on Monday, the Phillies would have spent a lot of time tapping their heads, not just shaking them in disbelief.

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