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The Cincinnati Reds and New York Yankees met for one of the more entertaining games of the season on Tuesday night, headlined by the debut of top pitching prospect Chase Burns.
But there was no shortage of fireworks in the game, especially as passionate Yankees infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. was seemingly ejected for arguing balls and strikes in the ninth inning of a tied ballgame.
But Chisholm Jr. spoke with reporters and seemed to indicate he wasn’t ejected for arguing balls and strikes, but rather ejected for next to nothing.
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“I got tossed for not even arguing with the umpire until I got tossed,” Chisholm said following the extra innings loss in Cincinnati. “I was warming up, throwing from third to first. Like any player (after a bad call), you’re going to talk to yourself. You’re going to cool yourself down. You’re going to be upset and be frustrated. I was never looking at (Wegner). And when I looked (toward home plate) and realized that he was looking at me, I looked at him and I said, ‘Why are you looking at me?’
“That’s when I got tossed. I didn’t get tossed for saying nothing crazy,” Chisholm said. “I didn’t get tossed for saying, ‘Oh, that was a bad pitch.’ I got tossed for saying, ‘Why are you looking at me?’ I don’t think that’s a good reason to toss anybody.”
The timeline of events and view from the broadcast seem to back up Chisholm’s recounting of events.
He wasn’t ejected directly after the pitch while the at-bat was still going on. He wasn’t ejected after he swung and missed at strike three a few pitches later. Chisholm wasn’t even ejected as he walked to the dugout and seemingly spoke out about how bad the call was.
It wasn’t until he took the field for the bottom half of the inning that the umpire finally decided to run him from the game.
At the end of the day, MLB needs to find a way to hold umpires accountable in situations like this. Ejecting a player for something that’s the umpire’s fault is inexcusable. The umpire missed the call and then antagonized Chisholm as if he were looking to eject the Yankees’ star from the game.
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