Kevin Gausman ejection

The Orioles-Red Sox feud of hit batters continued Wednesday, but in the most innocent way possible. At least innocent to everyone except home plate umpire Sam Holbrook. When Orioles pitcher Kevin Gausman’s 76 mph curveball to Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts didn’t break and caught Bogaerts on the hip, Holbrook wasted no time ejecting Gausman from the game.

Right after Holbrook tossed Gausman, you can see Gausman summing up the thoughts of all sane people in the world: “It was a fucking curveball!”

On top of that being a pretty obviously innocent pitch, Gausman is known for struggling with control. He averages more than five walks per nine innings. How does an umpire come away thinking that’s enough to eject a pitcher in the second inning? I have no idea.

Meanwhile, Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale threw a 98 mph fastball behind Orioles third baseman Manny Machado in Tuesday’s game and got away with a simple warning.

That came in retaliation for Orioles pitcher Dylan Bundy hitting Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts on Monday, which was in retaliation for Red Sox reliever Matt Barnes throwing at Machado in a previous series, which was in retaliation to Machado injuring Boston second baseman Dustin Pedroia with a hard slide.

While Barnes received a deserved ejection, Sale and Bundy avoided getting tossed. So it’s complete nonsense that this pitch that resulted in an ejection considering it was obviously the least intentional of them all. And no, there were no warnings in Wednesday’s game prior to Gausman getting tossed.

Pretty much everyone on Twitter, including Red Sox fans, couldn’t believe the ejection.

Some people want to see MLB suspend Holbrook.

About Jesse Kramer

Jesse is a writer and editor for The Comeback. He has also worked for SI.com and runs The Catch and Shoot, a college basketball website based in Chicago. He is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow Jesse on Twitter @Jesse_Kramer.