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Kevin Gausman entered Wednesday night’s game with 17 walks in 30 innings. He leads the AL in earned runs, and he leads the majors in hits allowed. He has not been very good this season. He has not been very good at all.
You might say that he is the kind of pitcher who could lose control of the occasional curveball. Like this:
Kevin Gausman getting tossed on a 77mph breaking ball hbp. pic.twitter.com/oSNoWOoBaF
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 4, 2017
The Orioles and Red Sox have played most of their games under a circus tent this season, with Manny Machado getting thrown at for a bad slide and then getting thrown at again. Commissioner Rob Manfred stepped in on Wednesday, demanding an end to the shenanigans.
Home plate umpire Sam Holbrook was understandably a little jumpy, then. That written, it was still a quick ejection of a starting pitcher, something that can dramatically alter a game.
To recap: Eduardo Rodriguez threw three balls at Machado and wasn’t ejected. Chris Sale threw behind Machado and wasn’t ejected. Kevin Gausman threw an awful curveball and was ejected.
In the interest of gotta-hear-both-sides, let’s check in with Red Sox partisans:
This is crazy. It's clear the league and the umps have no idea what they're doing
— OverTheMonster (@OverTheMonster) May 3, 2017
Holbrook has clearly been thinking about this all day. He was so ready to toss the first guy to hit someone and reacted way too quickly.
— OverTheMonster (@OverTheMonster) May 3, 2017
If the Orioles and Red Sox are still chasing the AL East title in September, remember this game and the implications of the ejection.