On Wednesday night at Wrigley Field, Dave Martinez was mad. Really mad.
And when the manager gets this mad he is going to get ejected. You know the saying 'In for a penny, in for a pound? Well, with the Washington Nationals in the middle of a mini-slump their manager got more than his money's worth. Martinez was in for at least a pound and a half.
Here's the situation: With the Nationals up 4-2 on the Chicago Cubs in the top of the seventh inning, Trea Turner struck out swinging. When the ball got past catcher Willson Contreras, the drop-third strike rule allowed Turner to make a mad dash for first base.
When the throw from Contreras clipped Turner as he was reaching the bag, the umpires promptly called Turner out for impeding the throw.
Enter Martinez into the fray. And Martinez simply went berserk.
The best angle of the incident perhaps came from ESPN's Sarah Spain, who was sitting behind home plate.
Martinez would walk into the Nationals' clubhouse and exit the game without any further incident.
There was no immediate update on first base's condition. The Nationals would go on to win 4-3, and after the game Martienz was very animated in his post-game Zoom conference with reporters.
"Honestly, I'm beside myself now with this whole out-of-the-baseline thing," he said. "I think it's awful. There's two parts to the rule, I get it. The second part of the rule is the judgment call. For me, it's a bad judgment, plain and simple. If you want to run on the other side of the baseline, put the base over there, plain and simple."
Martinez continued: "I'm going to argue 1,000 times when that happens, I really am. I'm sick of it. You guys saw it. It's a brutal call. And I'm done hiding it."
Turner was a bit more blunt with reporters in giving his take of the call:
For those with excellent memories, this play is similar to Game 6 of the 2019 World Series, which involved Turner and Martinez getting himself thrown out.
(Warning: The below video contains some salty language.)
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