SEATTLE — When Seattle Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon met with reporters after Sunday’s 4-2 loss to the Minnesota Twins, he had already changed out of his uniform and into shorts and a sweatshirt.
That’s because McClendon was ejected from the game in the top of the fourth inning after a brief argument with home-plate umpire Sean Barber, whose version of the strike zone did not align with McClendon’s.
McClendon said he was upset about an 0-2 pitch thrown by starter Roenis Elias to Twins center fielder Shane Robinson in the third inning. It was a curveball that, McClendon believed, appeared to catch the outside part of the plate, in the upper-left portion of the strike zone.
But Barber called the pitch a ball, Robinson eventually singled, and Joe Mauer drove him in from first base with an RBI double.
McClendon believed the call cost the Mariners a run. So, with Twins catcher Chris Herrmann batting in the top of the fourth, McClendon called timeout, started jawing at Barber on his way to visit Elias on the mound — the manager told Elias to “keep the ball down, (and) eventually get some strikes” — and McClendon continued his mostly one-sided conversation with Barber as he made his way back to the dugout, finger-pointing all the way.
Before he got there, though, Barber threw him out of the game, which led McClendon back to home plate, where he gestured and chastised Barber some more before heading back to the dugout. He watched the rest of the game inside.
Asked if he relayed his concerns about the strike zone to Barber during their exchange, McClendon replied: “Something to that effect, yeah.”
Elias, making his first start in the majors this season, said he appreciated the support.
“It felt good that he went out there to fight for it,” Elias said through an interpreter. “Obviously, those are close pitches that didn’t go for strikes, and he saw what I saw, and it was nice of him to go out there.”
Elias also pitched in an early-season game last year against Oakland that was umpired by Barber, whose inconsistent strike zone was also a topic of conversation that night.
McClendon’s ejection was his first this season, the 25th of his career as a manager, and the 30th of his career overall.
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