PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Pirates manager Derek Shelton, bench coach Don Kelly and pitching coach Oscar Marin were ejected by plate umpire Nic Lentz during the same at-bat for arguing ball/strike calls in the sixth inning Sunday night in a doubleheader nightcap against Cincinnati Reds.
Pittsburgh led 4-3 when Luke Maile walked with two outs, loading the bases. After the ejections, TJ Friedl hit an inning-ending flyout off Cody Bolton. The Reds rallied for a 6-5 victory in the 10th inning to split the doubleheader.
Third base coach Mike Rabelo took over as acting manager after the ejections.
Shelton said after the game that the Pirates weren’t happy with a called third strike to Bryan Reynolds in the bottom of the fifth. Then, they were upset with two pitches to Maile that were called a ball, on a 1-2 and a 3-2 count.
“I asked (Lentz) an inning earlier on the pitch that Reynolds struck out on where it was at,” Shelton said. “He told me it was up and I said I didn’t think it was up. The two pitches to Maile, in my opinion, were in the same spot.”
Chad Fairchild, the second base umpire and crew chief, spoke to a pool reporter after the game.
“They were warned to stop,” Fairchild said. “When Nic looked over there, there were multiple personnel in their dugout arguing balls and strikes.”
Fairchild said that Lentz initially removed Kelly followed by Shelton after he came onto the field to argue balls and strikes.
“After that, (Marin) was also continuing to argue balls and strikes so he was removed from the game,” Fairchild said. “It was multiple personnel arguing balls and strikes. At that point, when we’re looking over there and we’ve got multiple people, we had to do our job and that’s exactly what happened.”
Fairchild said that Shelton and his coaches were warned following the 1-2 count and the ejections took place after the 3-2 pitch.
Shelton said that he was ejected on the field, Marin was ejected for yelling from the dugout, but Kelly didn’t say anything.
“Donnie didn’t say a word. Not a word,” Shelton said. “I think the most frustrating thing is he just started running people and basically said, ’You’re all gone.” You very rarely see Donnie Kelly lose his cool and you got to see Donnie Kelly lose his cool. The first two were warranted, probably – arguing balls and strikes. The last one, I think he just started throwing people out and was not aware of what the situation was.”
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