Orioles starter Kevin Gausman was ejected by home plate umpire Sam Holbrook in the second inning of Wednesday’s game against the Red Sox after hitting Xander Bogaerts with a breaking ball. Prior to the game, commissioner Rob Manfred and chief baseball officer Joe Torre were on a conference call with the managers and general managers of both teams to try and end the feud that dates back nearly two weeks ago.
Holbrook explained how that played into his decision to eject Gausman, who was obviously not trying to hit Bogaerts. Via Christopher Smith of Mass Live:
Just given the situation and the tension between the two clubs and all the stuff that’s gone over the past few weeks, we’re all on high alert with anything. 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.
Gausman called Holbrook’s quick trigger “bush league.”
Just complete bush league, to be honest. To throw me out in that situation after what (Chris) Sale did yesterday, throwing 98 (mph) behind a guy, on purpose, everybody knew it. And you’re going to throw me out for hitting a guy on a curveball, no outs in the second inning. It’s pretty bush league.
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