Latest news with #MarlinsBraves
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Jen Pawol praised for work behind plate after breaking MLB umpire gender barrier
Jen Pawol breezed through Sunday's Marlins-Braves game as if breaking a gender barrier was just another day on the job. Considering Pawol became the first female umpire to work behind the plate in the majors, making unprecedented history appear to be routine was especially impressive. 'I think Jen did a really nice job,' Miami manager Clayton McCullough said after Atlanta's 7-1 win over the Marlins. 'I think she's very composed back there. She handled and managed the game very well. And big day for her. Big day for Major League Baseball. I congratulated her again on that because it's quite the accomplishment.' Read more: Blake Snell turns in a performance befitting his 'Snellzilla' nickname in Dodgers' blowout win It was an impressive cap to a memorable weekend for Pawol. She made history in Saturday's doubleheader as the first female umpire to work a regular-season game in the majors. She called the bases in the doubleheader before moving behind the plate on Sunday, placing her in the brightest spotlight for an umpire. Pawol never showed any indication of being affected by the attention, even while knowing every call would be closely watched. 'Congrats to Jen, obviously,' said Braves left-hander Joey Wentz, who earned the win by allowing only one run in 5 1/3 innings. Asked about Pawol's calls, Wentz said, 'I try not to focus on the zone, to be honest with you. ... I thought it was good though.' There were few opportunities for disputes as Wentz and Miami starting pitcher Cal Quantrill combined for only three strikeouts. The first called third strike came in the fifth inning, when Pawol used a fist pump when calling out Miami's Kyle Stowers on a pitch that was close to the edge of the plate. McCullough was seen in the Marlins dugout with his palms held up as if asking about the pitch call. He said after the game it's not unusual to question a close called strike. 'Over the course of the game, there are a number of times that you just are going to be asking for clarity on one, if you aren't sure,' McCullough said. 'So it could have been that.' The 48-year-old Pawol was called up as a rover umpire, so her next assignment in the majors has not been announced. 'I wish her the best moving forward as she continues to, I'm sure, hopefully one day be up full time, you know, a permanent big league umpire,' McCullough said. Pawol also received positive reviews from Braves manager Brian Snitker, who on Saturday said, 'You can tell she knows what she does.' Pawol's work in the minor leagues began in 2016 when she was assigned to the Gulf Coast League. She worked in the Triple-A championship game in 2023 and in spring training games in 2024 and again this year. Read more: In a battle of 3,000K stars, Clayton Kershaw outduels Max Scherzer in Dodgers' win 'We certainly didn't call her up from A ball, right?' Quantrll said. 'So yeah, I'm sure she was well prepared. And like I said I think, you know, part of the game moving forward is that if this is normal then we're going to treat it normal, too. So, you know, I thought it was fine. I think she did she did a quality job. ... And yeah, I think she'd be very proud of herself. And, you know, it's kind of a cool little thing to be part of.' Pawol spoke to reporters on Saturday when she said, "The dream actually came true today. I'm still living in it. I'm so grateful to my family and Major League Baseball for creating such an incredible work environment. … I'm just so thankful.' Pawol received cheers from fans on both days. On Sunday, some held up 'Way to go Jen!' signs. Odum writes for the Associated Press. Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Globe and Mail
2 days ago
- Sport
- Globe and Mail
Umpire Jen Pawol breaks MLB gender barrier on historic weekend
Jen Pawol breezed through Sunday's Marlins-Braves game as if breaking a gender barrier was just another day on the job. Considering Pawol became the first female umpire to work behind the plate in the majors, making unprecedented history appear to be routine was especially impressive. 'I think Jen did a really nice job,' Miami manager Clayton McCullough said after Atlanta's 7-1 win over the Marlins. 'I think she's very composed back there. She handled and managed the game very well. And big day for her. Big day for Major League Baseball. I congratulated her again on that because it's quite the accomplishment.' It was an impressive cap to a memorable weekend for Pawol. She made history in Saturday's doubleheader as the first female umpire to work a regular-season game in the majors. She called the bases in the doubleheader before moving behind the plate on Sunday, placing her in the brightest spotlight for an umpire. Pawol never showed any indication of being affected by the attention, even while knowing every call would be closely watched. 'Congrats to Jen, obviously,' said Braves left-hander Joey Wentz, who earned the win by allowing only one run in 5 1/3 innings. Asked about Pawol's calls, Wentz said, 'I try not to focus on the zone, to be honest with you. ... I thought it was good though.' There were few opportunities for disputes as Wentz and Miami starting pitcher Cal Quantrill combined for only three strikeouts. The first called third strike came in the fifth inning, when Pawol used a fist pump when calling out Miami's Kyle Stowers on a pitch that was close to the edge of the plate. McCullough was seen in the Marlins dugout with his palms held up as if asking about the pitch call. He said after the game it's not unusual to question a close called strike. 'Over the course of the game, there are a number of times that you just are going to be asking for clarity on one, if you aren't sure,' McCullough said. 'So it could have been that.' The 48-year-old Pawol was called up as a rover umpire, so her next assignment in the majors has not been announced. 'I wish her the best moving forward as she continues to, I'm sure, hopefully one day be up full time, you know, a permanent big league umpire,' McCullough said. Pawol also received positive reviews from Braves manager Brian Snitker, who on Saturday said, 'You can tell she knows what she does.' Pawol's work in the minor leagues began in 2016 when she was assigned to the Gulf Coast League. She worked in the Triple-A championship game in 2023 and in spring training games in 2024 and again this year. 'We certainly didn't call her up from A ball, right?' Quantrll said. 'So yeah, I'm sure she was well prepared. And like I said I think, you know, part of the game moving forward is that if this is normal then we're going to treat it normal, too. So, you know, I thought it was fine. I think she did she did a quality job. ... And yeah, I think she'd be very proud of herself. And, you know, it's kind of a cool little thing to be part of.' Pawol spoke to reporters on Saturday when she said, 'The dream actually came true today. I'm still living in it. I'm so grateful to my family and Major League Baseball for creating such an incredible work environment. … I'm just so thankful.' Pawol received cheers from fans on both days. On Sunday, some held up 'Way to go Jen!' signs.
Washington Post
2 days ago
- Sport
- Washington Post
Pawol breaks gender barrier, earns good reviews for her work behind the plate on historic weekend
ATLANTA — Jen Pawol breezed through Sunday's Marlins-Braves game as if breaking a gender barrier was just another day on the job. Considering Pawol became the first female umpire to work behind the plate in the majors, making unprecedented history appear to be routine was especially impressive. 'I think Jen did a really nice job,' Miami manager Clayton McCullough said after Atlanta's 7-1 win over the Marlins.
CBS News
4 days ago
- Sport
- CBS News
Edward Cabrera strikes out 11 in 8 innings as Miami Marlins beat Atlanta Braves 5-1
Edward Cabrera struck out 11 and allowed two hits in eight innings, Xavier Edwards went 3 for 5 with an RBI and the Miami Marlins beat the Atlanta Braves 5-1 on Friday night. Cabrera (6-5), in his 20th start of the season, did not allow a run until Jurickson Profar's homer in the sixth inning. Cabrera struck out the side in the eighth. Edwards singled up the middle in the third, scoring to score Dane Myers for a 1-0 lead. Edwards had his 34th multi-hit game. Rookies Jakob Marsee and Troy Johnston added RBI hits in the fourth for a 3-0 lead. Marsee doubled down the left field line and Johnston singled up the middle. Heriberto Hernandez, another rookie, hit a two-run homer to left in the fifth for his seventh of the season. Bryce Elder (4-9) allowed five earned runs and seven hits in six innings. Dylan Dodd struck out four in three innings of relief. Marcell Ozuna, who had a go-ahead RBI in the seventh on Thursday, went 0 for 4. Both of Miami's walks — Myers in the third and Kyle Stowers in the fifth — came in to score. Miami entered having lost 17 of its last 21 games at Truist Park. The Braves came into the game 112-62 (.644) against the Marlins, including an 8-6 victory on Thursday in the series opener. The Braves and Marlins continue a five-game, four-day series with a day-night split doubleheader on Saturday as a makeup from a rainout on April 6. Atlanta RHP Hurston Waldrep (1-0, 1.59) will pitch Game 1, while Miami has not announced a starter. Miami RHP Sandy Alcantara (6-10, 6.44) is scheduled to make his second start against Atlanta this season versus RHP Eric Fedde (3-12, 5.32) in Game 2.
Globe and Mail
5 days ago
- Sport
- Globe and Mail
With the call she's waited her whole career for, umpire Jen Pawol is set for a historic debut
Jen Pawol was in her hotel room in Nashville, Tenn., when she got the call she had awaited for a decade. She was going to make her major league debut this weekend, becoming the first female umpire in a century and a half of big league baseball. 'I was overcome with emotion,' Pawol recalled Thursday, two days before she breaks a gender barrier when she works the bases during Miami's doubleheader at Atlanta. 'It was super emotional to finally be living that phone call that I'd been hoping for and working towards for quite a while, and I just felt super full — I feel like a fully charged battery ready to go.' Her voice quavering with emotion, Pawol talked about getting the news during a Wednesday conference call with director of umpire development Rich Rieker and vice president of umpire operations Matt McKendry. MLB to call up its first female umpire, promoting Jen Pawol for Saturday's Marlins-Braves game Pawol thought back to her long road. In the early 1990s at West Milford High School in New Jersey, she had a summer conversation with Lauren Rissmeyer, the third baseman on the school's softball team. ''Do you want to come umpire with me?'' Pawol remembered being asked. 'I didn't think twice about it. Lauren's doing it, so I'm going to do it.' Pawol's pay was US$15 per game. 'She took a field and I took a field,' Pawol said. 'It was a one-umpire system. I had no idea what I was doing, but I got to put gear on and call balls and strikes, so I was in.' A 1995 graduate at West Milford, which inducted her into its Athletic Hall of Fame in 2022, Pawol became a three-time all-conference softball selection pick at Hofstra. After umpiring NCAA softball from 2010-16, she was approached by then-big league ump Ted Barrett at an umpire camp in Binghamton, N.Y. in early 2015. 'Moreso than any female that I'd seen, she looked like she could handle the rigors of the job physically,' Barrett said Thursday. 'But what impressed me was her willingness to learn. She seemed like a sponge, everything that we were teaching her. I'm proud that I made her aware of the opportunity.' Barrett invited Pawol to attend a clinic in Atlanta and then a MLB tryout camp at Cincinnati that Aug. 15. He invited her to dinner in Atlanta with fellow big league umps Paul Nauert and Marvin Hudson and their wives. 'I warned her: `Look, this is what you're up against. It's going to be 10 years in the minor leagues before you sniff a big big field,'' Barrett said. Pawol was among 38 hopefuls invited to the Umpire Training Academy at Vero Beach, Fla., and started her pro umpiring career in the Gulf Coast League on June 24, 2016, working the plate when the GCL Tigers West played at the GCL Blue Jays. She moved up to the New York/Penn League in 2017, the Midwest League after the first two weeks of the 2018 season, then worked the South Atlantic League in 2019, the High-A Midwest League in 2021, the Double-A Eastern League and the Triple-A International and Pacific Coast Leagues in 2023. She was called in for big league spring training in 2024 and '25. 'This has been over 1,200 minor league games, countless hours of video review trying to get better, and underneath it all has just been this passion and this love for the game of baseball,' she said. 'This started in my playing days as a catcher and transformed over into an umpire, and I think it's gotten even stronger as an umpire. Umpiring is for me, it's in my DNA. It's been a long, hard journey.' Among eight female umpires currently in the minors, she will join Chris Guccione's crew in Atlanta, where she expects about 30 family and friends. She is to work the bases during Saturday's doubleheader and call balls and strikes on Sunday. Pawol was at third base on Wednesday night as Jacksonville beat Nashville in the International League when Sounds third baseman Oliver Dunn congratulated her. 'If I make it to the big leagues,' he told her, 'we will have both worked all the levels together.' Pawol repeatedly thanked her minor league umpiring predecessors, mentioning several who exchanged calls or texts, including Christine Wren, Pam Postema and Ria Cortesio. Just after her promotion to Triple-A, Pawol met with Postema in Las Vegas. 'The last thing she said to me when I saw her was: Get it done!' Powal explained. 'So I texted her yesterday and said, `I'm getting it done!'' Barrett will be watching from Oregon, where he is attending Northwest League games this weekend. 'The hopes of this are that it inspires,' he said. 'Who knows, there'll be a young lady watching the game on TV and says, `Hey, I'd like to try that.''
