You can’t argue balls and strikes – and that’s why Anthony Rizzo earned his third career ejection during Thursday’s Yankees-Orioles game…from the dugout?
Indeed, Rizzo was tossed in the top of the eighth, one pitch after he struck out swinging, while Giancarlo Stanton was in the box. You’ll see in the video below that Rizzo had two low strikes called on him before swinging at strike three, and when a pitch in a similar location was called a ball to Stanton, someone could be heard yelling “SAME PITCH!” from the dugout and Rizzo was tossed:
Rizzo wasn’t the only one who had expressed his displeasure with home plate umpire Manny Gonzalez’s strike zone, as Baltimore’s Trey Mancini also seemed frustrated and slammed down his batting gloves and helmet after striking out looking (on a similarly-located pitch) to end the sixth inning with the bases loaded.
Manager Aaron Boone came out of the dugout with Rizzo, who gave Gonzalez an earful to get his money’s worth, and was probably right based on this graph, which showed the third pitch of his at-bat, called a ball, was closer to the strike zone than the two called strikes:
Ironically, Stanton ended up drawing a walk, but was stranded on first base.
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