Matt Strahm likely wasn’t going to pitch on Saturday anyway, but the umpires made sure of that after a national anthem standoff against his former team.
The Phillies pitcher spent last season with the Red Sox and took them head-on from the dugout and the mound this weekend.
Strahm and Boston pitcher Kutter Crawford engaged in a standoff after the national anthem on Saturday that resulted in an ejection for both players.
Strahm joined WEEI’s Rob Bradford on the Audacy Original Podcast “Baseball Isn’t Boring” and gave his point of view on the Saturday standoff.
“Zero of it was planned. The anthem was over, I looked across, and Kutter kind of gave me a grin. And I knew exactly what that grin meant so I just stood there,” Strahm said (6:38 in player above). “Zero plan on that. Just locked eyes after the anthem and both still had our hat over our heart and neither of us were moving.”
This is Strahm’s first season with the Phillies but he’s got an attitude that any Philadelphian would love.
“I’ve never done anything like that in my life but if you know me you know competition’s everything to me so I kind of felt like I was being called out right there,” Strahm continued. “Looking back on it, probably not the wisest decision I’ve made in my big-league career, but yeah, moving on.”
Strahm was scheduled for an off day on Saturday anyway after pitching against the Dodgers earlier this week, so the ejection wasn’t a huge deal, but it never feels good to let your teammates down.
“I didn’t even realize I was thrown out,” he said. “The first base umpire came over to me and said ‘You got to get going.’ And all I said was ‘OK, well it’s our home field so he should go first, right?’ And then he said ‘OK,’ and when I looked over Kutter was leaving, and I walked down the steps and they told me I was thrown out…
“(Rob Thomson) told me I got thrown out once I got down there. Never seen a warning or anything, but I guess should’ve known better with how strict they are with the pitch clock,” Strahm laughed. “Lesson learned. Embarrassing moment, learn from it, move on.”
The southpaw made up for it with a two-inning save, his first of the season, on Sunday. He struck out three and allowed just one hit in the two innings.
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