History was made this past weekend at Truist Park, as Jen Pawol became the first female umpire to appear in an MLB game. While it was definitely cool to see Pawol serve as a base umpire in the first three games of the series between the Atlanta Braves and Miami Marlins, watching her call balls and strikes from behind the plate was the first true test of how well she'd fit in. And that test went about as expected.
This isn't to say things were always perfect. In fact, on the very first pitch she called, controversy was stirred up. Joey Wentz's pitch was very clearly inside, yet it was called a strike.
The first pitch with Jen Pawol as the umpire behind the plate:
— SleeperMLB (@SleeperMLB) August 10, 2025
pic.twitter.com/fvAnBUFv25
As poor as this call was, Pawol would eventually settle in and prove to be fairly adequate, especially when considering the fact that this was her first MLB game. When gradingon the curve any newbie should get, it's hard to get on Pawol too much.
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Jen Pawol was perfectly adequate in her first MLB game
In her MLB debut behind the plate, umpire Jen Pawol missed the first call of the game, but settled in to call a relatively unremarkable game.
— Umpire Auditor (@UmpireAuditor) August 11, 2025
She missed 14 calls and had a correct call rate of 90.3%. She was ranked 13th of 15 umpires on the day. pic.twitter.com/S2I3jhxJS1
The first call was bad, and it was far from the only missed call that she had on the day, but she had a correct call rate of 90.3 percent per the Umpire Auditor X account. While we'd obviously like to see that number be a bit higher, she ranked 13th of the 15 home plate umpires on Sunday. Not great, but not the worst either, especially when factoring in the circumstances.
The job of an umpire, particularly behind the plate, is unforgiving. Fans expect perfection, especially given the fact that the ABS system looms, but those expectations are unrealistic. Umpires make mistakes, and Pawol figures to be criticized more harshly for the ones she makes.
She made her share of them on Sunday, but let's consider the circumstances. Nerves were very clearly prevalent, especially with that first pitch, but can anyone blame her? Would any umpire in her shoes not be a little off? If that's how she does in her first game when she is still getting her feet wet, we might have a good one here.
She didn't exactly stick out as an elite umpire in her debut, but she wasn't Angel Hernandez or C.B. Bucknor either. She was a touch below-average, which, when considering the circumstances, feels perfectly fine.