The Dave Martinez Era has an early theme: players and managers getting ejected.
Nationals third baseman Anthony Rendon was ejected by home plate umpire Marty Foster without saying a word when he took a called third strike on Saturday against the New York Mets.
Rendon took the pitch and then casually flipped his bat toward to the other side of home plate. He was shocked when he learned he had been ejected.
Martinez, the first-year manager for the Nationals, then was ejected when he came out to argue with Foster in the third inning. It was the first ejection for Martinez as a manager in the big leagues.
Foster was calling strikes on the inside of the plate for both teams early on in the game and television replays showed some of the pitches he called strikes were balls.
Several Mets fans on Twitter felt it was a very quick trigger by Foster.
It was the third ejection in two games for the Nationals.
Shortstop Trea Turner was tossed on Thursday for the first time in 205 Major League games when he was called out on strikes with the bases loaded.
Rendon was ejected in a game in June 2016 when he also said nothing to the umpire, according to former Washington manager Dusty Baker.
“[Rendon] didn’t say anything,” Baker told reporters. “And [umpire Bob Davidson] said he looked like he was gonna throw the bat at him. And he says he wasn’t gonna take that. And I said ’man, he wasn’t going to throw the bat at you.’ And he said ’well, he looked like it.’ And so maybe he’s a mindreader. I mean, Anthony wasn’t going to throw the bat at him. C’mon man. That’s the explanation that I got from him.”
That ejection in 2016 was the first for Rendon.
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