HBP 3rd Strike.

I can't speak for where the ball was...but if the umpire said it was in the strike zone...then the correct call is:

Dead ball...

Strike 3....

3 outs inning over.....

Looks to me as if the only debatable issue was was the ball in the zone or not....that would be the umpires judgment... he judged it to be in the zone, so based on that judgment, the call was correct....

A batter hit by a pitch can never be a dropped 3rd strike........ getting hit by a a pitch can only be a dead ball.....then, depending on the situation the umpire decides what happens next...

batter with 2 strikes hit by pitch: Immediate dead ball

the batter is:

HBP out of zone- awarded first base
HBP in zone- dead ball strike three

Hope this helps.......

Third option - batter touched by a pitched ball outside of strike zone but makes no attempt to avoid being touched, ball called, ball is dead. (I realize this wouldn't apply in the case being discussed because the ump ruled the ball was in the strike zone. This rule doesn't seem to get used very often.)

Actually I see the HBP "ball - stay right there" call more often these days. Since a lot of players have gotten pretty obvious about "taking it for the team" it seems that the blues are getting more comfortable calling an out of zone HBP just a ball when the batter doesn't make any effort to avoid the pitch.