Mark Reynolds and Orioles manager Buck Showalter were both ejected from last night’s game against the Tigers following a controversial play at first base in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Jhonny Peralta was initially ruled out after hitting a grounder to third base. However, Tigers manager Jim Leyland came out to argue and the call was eventually overturned by home plate umpire Tim Timmons, who ruled that Manny Machado’s wide throw pulled Reynolds off the first base bag. The Tigers didn’t end up scoring in the inning, but eventually pulled out a 5-3 win.
Here’s the video of the play in question:
It’s a lot closer than watching in real time and it appears first base umpire Jeff Kellogg may have had the call right. Timmons was apparently coming up the first base line on the play, but it’s hard to believe he had a better view.
Reynolds didn’t pull many punches after the game, expressing his frustration for the reversed call and for being ejected for throwing his glove into the dirt, which he felt should have only resulted in a fine for an equipment violation. Here’s a sampling of his comments, via Brittany Ghiroli of MLB.com:
“Definitely. I’ve never in my life seen someone reverse a call. The guy in Colorado, the guy was off the bag by three feet. And my foot was on the bag and they reversed it. And it’s a shame they don’t have accountability. They don’t have any, if they make a bad call it’s like, ‘Ho-hum, next day is coming.’ If we have a bad couple of games we get benched or we get sent down. They have nobody breathing down their throats. They have nobody, they are just secure in their jobs. And they are probably over there right now laughing about it because they don’t worry about it. This game is way too important right now, where we are in the season, for these kind of calls to happen. And it’s very frustrating.”
“That’s terrible. Vic [Carapazza] has no authority to throw me out right there. all I did was an equipment violation, it’s a fine. You are supposed to point at it and the league offices decide what to do there. He just threw me out right there. I didn’t do anything wrong. If I go up to him and say something to him, that I shouldn’t say. That’s fine, throw me out there for that. But you can’t throw me out for throwing my glove. What’s the difference between a guy throwing his helmet after a bad call? It’s just part of it and everybody goes on their way. He had no right to throw me out there. There’s just so many words I can’t say on this camera right now.”
“It’s almost like screw the Orioles by the umpires. I mean Jonsie was obviously safe at first base the other day, cost us a run against Boston. There’s got to be some kind of replay for this. It’s to the point where all these calls that get missed, cost people runs, cost people outs. Cost [starter Tommy Hunter] extra pitches. I can’t say how I really feel but it’s pretty obvious.”
Hoo-boy. Reynolds certainly has a strong case here, but he will likely be getting a call from MLB and a fine for speaking his mind.
