Ejections leave Baltimore Orioles frustrated in tension-filled series with Boston Red Sox
BOSTON — The frustration for the Baltimore Orioles after their 4-2 loss to the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on Wednesday night was obvious.
But it wasn’t just because of the loss. Right-hander Kevin Gausman was ejected by home plate umpire Sam Holbrook after hitting Xander Bogaerts with a 76-mph curveball. Bogaerts was just the fifth batter Gausman faced. Command has not been a hallmark for Gausman, who threw just 20 pitches, eight for strikes. He entered the game with a 59.8 strike percentage in his six previous starts this season.
“It’s frustrating to lose anybody,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. “Sam’s a good umpire. He’s trying to do what he thinks is right. But obviously we’re biased. We know the sincerity of the intent. Obviously, he’s not trying to hit anybody. You’ve got a 77-mph pitch compared to a (97 Tuesday) night. I mean, you can figure it out. You guys are smart. You’ve been watching a lot of baseball. “It’s obviously surprising. I think anybody that knows baseball knows he’s not trying to hit him with a 77-mph curveball or changeup. I’m not sure what it was. Just makes you shake your head.”
The Orioles weren’t the only ones surprised by the ejection. “I think it kind of caught us all a little off guard,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said. “That’s the most I can say right now. It was surprising.” The 97-mph pitch Showalter referenced was from Boston’s Chris Sale that whizzed behind Manny Machado’s knees in the first inning on Tuesday. “It’s frustrating,” Showalter said. “You keep trying to do the right thing and take the high ground and it’s frustrating. It’s hard to turn the other cheek, but you keep trying to. But it’s unfortunate that those decisions come. But we have to deal with them and it affects other people and a lot of players and a lot of things that go on. It’s one of those things. You don’t sit there and bleed. You do something about it and you make adjustments. We knew we were probably going to need a reliever tomorrow, so we had brought somebody in tonight. We had made plans for a long reliever tomorrow. We’ll see if we need to add somebody else. We’re fortunate we’re playing a night game tomorrow.”
But with both teams — and Major League Baseball — on edge after a series of incidents in their seven previous games this season — necessitating a conference call Wednesday afternoon with commissioner Rob Manfred and chief baseball office Joe Torre — perhaps it was no surprise that Holbrook had little leeway for tolerance in the game. Gausman was ejected despite the fact that no previous warnings had been issued. “Just given the situation and the tension between the two clubs and all the stuff that’s gone on over the past few weeks, we’re all on high alert with anything,” Holbrook said in statement after the game. “I know that the ball was a curveball, but it hit him square in the back and just making a split decision at that point right there, there needs to be an end to this stuff, and I felt like an ejection was the right thing to do at that time, and that’s what we did. Thankfully, we didn’t have any more problems the rest of the game.”
For Gausman, who took the loss, falling to 1-3 with a 7.55 ERA, the pitch that hit Bogaerts was the first curveball he threw in the game. “I didn’t know who (Holbrook) threw out at first,” Gausman said. “Just complete bush league, to be honest. To throw me out in that situation after what Sale did yesterday, throwing 98 behind a guy — on purpose, everybody knew it — and you’re going to throw me out for hitting a guy on a curveball? In the second inning? I mean, it’s pretty bush league. “I was trying to throw (a curveball) with a lot of depth, and it slipped out of my hand. “If you’re going to throw somebody out for any pitch, you better warn both sides before the game starts. That’s the way I look at it. Like I said, very frustrating. Obviously ... I’ll just leave it at that.” Both sides were warned on Tuesday after Sale’s pitch to Machado. “He did it on purpose, and everybody knew it,” Gausman said. “For him to get away with it, and I hit a guy with a curveball and they throw me out of the game, that’s pretty ridiculous.” Catcher Caleb Joseph immediately jumped out from behind the plate when Gausman was ejected, imploring — in vain — Holbrook to change his mind.
“I think the video shows I was probably the most shocked person in the stadium,” Joseph said. “I could not believe that he ejected him. I couldn’t believe it. “The reason that I got so upset is because, yes the in-game decision is very important, but there’s ripples we’re going to have to deal with for the next five, six, seven days. We had to cover [seven] innings in the bullpen, and that’s huge. That can set a team back five or six days. Sam’s a fine guy, a good umpire, but tonight he missed a call. He missed a call, and what I would like to see, and we see it all the time with umpires, if they’re unsure, they gather together. When you’re making a quick decision that can directly impact not only the game, but a week’s worth of games after that, the best course of action is to get everybody together, get four minds involved and see what everybody thinks, and make a decision. There’s no timetable, no time limit on when you eject a player or not. Why can’t we do that? If we can do it on busted-up plays, why can’t we do it for pitches that they think are deemed on purpose?” Ubaldo Jimenez, who had been scheduled to start Thursday’s series finale, pitched three innings on Wednesday. Showalter said he has a “contingency” plan ready. Gausman, who said he would like to return Thursday, was unsure when he would pitch again. “I don’t know, I haven’t talked to Buck yet,” Gausman said. “I want to pitch (Thursday). That probably won’t happen. I don’t know. We’ll talk about it and go from there.” Baltimore center fielder Adam Jones was also ejected after he struck out in the fifth inning. The last time two Orioles were ejected in the same game was July 8, 2011 — also at Fenway. The Orioles were attempting to turn the page and get ready for the next game. “We’re never going to be the team to sit there and say, ‘Woe is us,’” Joseph said. “But I think what happened today, the majority of people if they’re looking at it through unbiased sunglasses, they’re going to see that tonight was a mistake. At the end of the day, we got a game tomorrow, we got to come out and try and even this series up. That’s one thing that matters. We can’t be dwelling on what happened tonight. We got to pack it in, go back, rest on it, come back and get fired up to play tomorrow, see what happens."
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2017/05/04/ejections-leave-baltimore-orioles-frustrated-tension-filled-series-boston-red-sox/101274556/
