Stallings, Schumaker ejected in eighth inning of Marlins’ loss to Giants. What happened?
Skip Schumaker had to stop his postgame press conference a couple times on Friday night.
“Excuse me,” the Miami Marlins’ manager said. “Lost my voice.”
Schumaker and catcher Jacob Stallings spent a lengthy time in the bottom of the eighth inning trying to argue their case, a futile effort that led to both being ejected in the Marlins’ 4-3 loss to the San Francisco Giants to begin a three-game series at Oracle Park.
So ... what happened? Here’s the gist of it:
Marlins reliever Bryan Hoeing was facing Giants designated hitter J.D. Davis to lead off the inning. After five pitches, the count was full. With the pitch clock winding down, the Marlins thought Davis was not engaged with Hoeing. Hitters have to be engaged with at least eight seconds left on the clock or a violation is supposed to be called and the hitter be given an automatic strike. As the clock ticked down to three seconds, Stallings called timeout but Hoeing still delivered the pitch.
Ball 4. Davis makes his way to first base.
Schumaker, confused by the decision, leaves the dugout to ask home plate umpire Marvin Hudson to have the umpires convene to get clarity. After a brief discussion, the situation remained unchanged.
Stallings and Schumaker proceed to plead their cases and were eventually ejected. Nick Fortes replaced Stallings at catcher for the eighth inning. Bench coach Luis Urueta served as acting manager for the final two innings.
Here is everything Schumaker and Stallings had to say postgame about the ejection and how the scene unfolded, as well as comments from Hudson via a pool report with the Associated Press’ Michael Wagaman.
Skip Schumaker
“Definitely disagreement. I don’t know if I have clarity yet. I’d like to get some clarity on it. J.D. Davis was not engaged for me. Stallings was trying to call timeout to show that he was not engaged and it should be a strike. He’s trying to call timeout. He’s allowed to call timeout to go run out to talk to the pitcher. He wasn’t granted it. And then we saw the umpire call timeout with his hands up. He [Stallings] said he [Hudson] called the timeout. That was the disagreement. It was still Ball 4. Trying to figure out what happened.”
Jacob Stallings
“I didn’t think Davis was in the box until like five seconds to go on the clock. I hadn’t even called a pitch yet. I called time to take the mound visit because the clock was running down. Bryan threw the ball so I didn’t run out there. The home plate umpire called time behind me, so I turned around to look at him. I didn’t take my mound visit because he called time. I was under the impression he was going to check with the other umpires to see if the clock was under eight [seconds], so I just stayed at home. I didn’t take my mound visit. They come back, saying it’s a ball. I wasn’t arguing with [first base umpire] Hunter [Wendelstedt]. I was just telling him I was taking a mound visit and he kept telling me I’m not allowed to call time. I said I am if I’m taking a mound visit and he said I couldn’t argue.”
“I didn’t curse or anything crazy like that. I just was trying to explain to Hunter what happened because it was obviously a group decision to award the ball. He thought I was arguing. I was just frustrated because it’s a one-run game in the eighth and their leadoff guy gets on. I don’t know what else to say.”
Marvin Hudson
“He [Stallings] stood up and called time with about three seconds left. [He] never mentioned at that point about going to the mound. At that point, it’s a violation on him. It’s Ball 4 for the batter because it was a 3-2 count.”
Did Stalllings start walking to the mound, and if so, was that the violation?
“No,” Hudson said. “He turned to me and was saying something about the clock. He never told me he needed … he didn’t tell me right away he was going to the mound, so that’s Ball 4 because of the 3-2 count. When he called time and didn’t tell me right away he was going to the mound, that turned into a violation then.”
And why did Schumaker get ejected?
“You can’t argue the pitch time clock,” Hudson said, “so he got run.”
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