WASHINGTON — Tuesday night’s loss to the Washington Nationals was a frustrating one for the Orioles’ offense, and it boiled over with two outs in the ninth inning.
Ryan O’Hearn was called out on strikes by home plate umpire Alex Tosi and was ejected after arguing the call. Manager Brandon Hyde charged out of the dugout to back up his hitter and was also ejected.
The ejection was the first of O’Hearn’s seven-year career.
“I just lost my cool,” he said. “There was a few strikes on me called that I really didn’t like — going back to the first inning, going back to the first pitch, actually. Then I sat in the dugout and watched it happen to our guys all night. [Colton] Cowser had a really bad one 3-2. It’s hard to tell as players because we don’t get the K-zone anymore on the iPads, but, I mean, it got to the point that it was just bad. I mean, he was calling balls outside the K-zone strikes.
Ryan Mountcastle grounded out to end the game, as the Orioles lost, 3-0, and recorded only three hits while striking out 12 times.
It appears the pitch from Nationals closer Kyle Finnegan that O’Hearn took for strike three was a 97.5 mph fastball that was slightly inside. O’Hearn turned around in shock after the call, pointed towards Tosi and briefly got in the umpire’s face before walking away while still expressing his displeasure.
O’Hearn said an inconsistent home plate umpire makes it harder on hitters to approach an at-bat without knowing whether two pitches in the same location will be called the same way.
“If you look where the pitches came in — we’ll just take that at-bat for an example. The pitch before that he called a ball was less inside, it was more towards the plate than that one,” he said. “When I see where a pitch is and I go, ‘OK, that’s a ball there,’ and then he throws one a little bit further inside and he bangs me on that one, that’s pretty irritating.”
Here's where Statcast had that ninth-inning strike three that Ryan O'Hearn got ejected for.
O'Hearn: "When I see where a pitch is and I go, ‘OK, that’s a ball there,’ and then he throws one a little bit further inside and he bangs me on that one, that’s pretty irritating." pic.twitter.com/XBrBD6FjU0
— Jacob Calvin Meyer (@jcalvinmeyer) May 8, 2024
Hyde was quickly heaved by Tosi after defending O’Hearn and then got in the umpire’s face to express his own frustration. It is the 14th ejection of Hyde’s six-year managerial career.
“O’Hearn got called out on strikes and didn’t think it was,” Hyde said. “Felt like that was a few times tonight that he got called on a strike that wasn’t. I think he voiced his displeasure a little bit.”
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It’s not the first time an umpire has drawn the ire of the Orioles this season. On April 30, embattled umpire C.B. Bucknor was behind the plate for Baltimore’s home game against the New York Yankees. He called Gunnar Henderson out on strikes in the first inning, and Mid-Atlantic Sports Network announcer and Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer lambasted Bucknor, who has a reputation as one of MLB’s worst umpires.
“He shouldn’t be umpiring and he is, and they know it,” Palmer said. “It’s kind of like pitching, when I couldn’t get people out, I became a broadcaster.”
"He shouldn't be umpiring and he is, and they know it."
MASN announcer Jim Palmer rips into home plate umpire C.B. Bucknor (again) pic.twitter.com/Xh7Kw0SAju
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 1, 2024
MLB is experimenting with an automatic strike zone and a challenge system in the minor leagues. O’Hearn said he would endorse the latter option.
“Maybe the challenge system would be cool to be able to have some say,” O’Hearn said. “We do this every day, so we have a good understanding of what the strike zone is. A lot of hitters know when they’re getting screwed it seems like, and it would be cool to be able to challenge it.”