« Lugo's off; Drew and Pedroia stay at the top
Main
On BP and rolling the ball to first base »

Ortiz still not happy

Even as he dressed for today’s game David Ortiz was still less than happy with his ejection from Friday night’s contest.

``He threw me out because he wanted to,’’ Ortiz said of being tossed by home plate umpire Tony Randazzo. Randazzo called Ortiz out looking. The ball looked to be low but over the plate. Ortiz was ejected for throwing his bat and helmet as he reached the Boston dugout. It was his sixth career ejection and third with Boston. His last was Aug. 19, 2005 in Anaheim.

Sox manager Terry Francona made it clear he was a bit puzzled, as well as unhappy, by Randazzo’s actions.

``I think you’ve got to keep it in perspective a little bit,’’ Francona said, noting that Ortiz had walked away and was at the edge of the dugout when he was ejected. ``If he throws his helmet and it goes in the dugout, nothing happens. Nobody says anything.’’

``I don’t think it’s necessarily correct to say mounting frustration. He got all the way back to the dugout and didn’t get thrown out,’’ Francona said. ``The umpire was doing as much,maybe not as much, but not letting it go.’’

Francona said he sought out replays after the game to try and understand what happened.

``After watching it I still didn’t quite understand it,’’ he said. The manager does not think Ortiz is getting a reputation for arguing too much with umpires.

``I think David’s got a very good reputation around the league,’’ Francona said. ``We talked to our hitters about not swinging at balls. David, because he is DH, has the ability to look at all the pitches all the game. He wants to swing at strikes because we harp on him about that. You go through periods where sometimes the plate gets wider, sometimes it doesn’t that’s baseball.’’

Posted by Paul Kenyon  at 1:44 PM | Permalink

Comments

orlando | June 16, 2007 7:16 PM link