Red Sox vs. Astros ALDS: Red Sox manager John Farrell ejected from Game 4
Back-to-back borderline strike three calls set Farrell off
By
Mike Axisa
•
1 min read
Monday afternoon at Fenway Park, the Red Sox are once again playing for their season. The BoSox came back to beat the Astros in Game 3 (BOS 10, HOU 3) to force a Game 4 (GameTracker). Houston leads the best-of-five series 2-1.
Starters Rick Porcello and Charlie Morton both struggled early in Game 4, and in the second inning, the Red Sox loaded the bases with no outs, setting themselves up for a big inning. Instead, they did not score. Two strikeouts and a fly ball stranded all three runners.
The two strikeouts came on borderline pitches. Home plate umpire Mark Wegner said Morton clipped the corner with breaking balls for strike three against both Jackie Bradley Jr. and Dustin Pedroia. Here is the strike three pitch location to Bradley:
And here is the strike three pitch location to Pedroia:
Like I said, borderline. Probably too close for Bradley and Pedroia to take with the bases loaded. Those are pitches you have to try to fight off to extend the at-bat because doing damage on pitches located there probably isn't happening.
The called strike three set Pedroia off and he gave Wegner the business after being rung up. Manager John Farrell stormed out of the dugout to protect his star player, and wound up getting tossed for his efforts. Pedroia did get to stay in the game, which was Farrell's goal. Keep him in the game even if it means I get tossed.
Here is video of the argument and the ejection:
John Farrell has just been ejected from today's game. https://t.co/leAXNVV45j
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 9, 2017
Farrell is the first manager to get ejected during a postseason game since 2014, when then-Nationals manager Matt Williams was tossed in Game 2 of the NLDS. Asdrubal Cabrera was ejected for arguing balls and strikes in that game, then Williams came out to continue arguing and was tossed.
Umpires tend to give players and managers a lot of leeway in the postseason. Farrell (and Pedroia) must've said the magic words to trigger the ejection in Game 4.
