Watch: Managers Terry Francona and Phil Nevin were ejected on the same play
We take you to Cleveland on Monday night for one of the wildest scenes of the 2022 Major League Baseball season.
Chaos unfolded in the bottom of the seventh inning of the Guardians' 5-4 win over the Los Angeles Angels when both managers -- Cleveland's Terry Francona and Los Angeles' Phil Nevin -- were ejected.
On the same play.
By the same umpire (home plate umpire Ron Kulpa).
So what happened?
Francona was the first manager to get ejected when he argued that a pitcher from Ryan Tepera, called a ball, had actually hit Cleveland batter Andres Gimenez. His screaming resulted in an ejection from Kulpa. In the end, that is pretty standard stuff and not all that uncommon.
But while that was unfolding, Tepera had attempted to throw a couple of warm-up pitches while the game was stopped, only to be told he was not allowed to do that. That resulted in Nevin taking exception and trying to defend his pitcher and also getting ejected.
Total madness.
Francona was upset because he was not granted a challenge on the play, while Nevin argued it was a player safety issue to not allow his pitcher to throw warm-up pitches while the game was stopped.
Adding to the chaos is that Kulpa also had to leave the game early in the ninth inning when he was hit in the mask by a foul ball.
First place umpire John Tumpane addressed all of this in a pool report after the game, and acknowledged they should have allowed Tempera to get warmup pitches and that they were not aware Francona was holding for a replay.
"We weren’t aware that (Francona) was holding for us to look at a hit by pitch,” said Tumpane. “By our protocol, if the pitcher is on the rubber and the batter is in the box, we’re moving onto the next pitch.
“Obviously, player safety is paramount, and looking back at it, yes, we would have given (Tepera) some warmup pitches so his safety was not at risk.”
You never know what you are going to see at the ballpark.
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