The Texas Rangers and Miami Marlins combined for 32 runs during Wednesday nights game. But that somehow wasn’t the most bizarre thing to take place.
In the 8th inning, Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre was warming up outside the on-deck circle. Umpires seem to enforce the on-deck circle rule rather liberally. Many players warmup around the on-deck circle but sometimes aren’t necessarily in the circle. Beltre seemed like he was a distance away and that attracted the attention of umpire Gerry Davis.
The full Adrian Beltre ejection/on-deck circle moment complete with an ejection of manager Jeff Banister. #Rangers pic.twitter.com/DMQTtJsCpE
— Today in MLB (@Todayin_MLB) July 27, 2017
Instead of going toward the on-deck circle, Beltre dragged the circle toward where he was standing. Beltre claimed that he didn’t want to warmup in the usual spot due to fear of getting hit on a foul ball.
“I tell Gerry I have no problem, but I didn’t want to get hit. I’ve been hit standing over there. He said I don’t care and you need to be on top of the mat,” Beltre said. “I wasn’t being funny. He told me to stand on the mat so I pulled the mat where I was. … I actually did what he told me.”
It got a rise out of the Rangers fans who had to endure a blowout loss but it must’ve rubbed Davis the wrong way and he ejected Beltre. Manager Jeff Banister came out to argue and was ejected as well. I can’t remember seeing this ever happening.
The only reason I can see why an umpire would have a legitimate reason to eject Beltre would be if Beltre was warming up within the eye-line of the pitcher. Seeing someone moving and warming out out of the corner of a pitcher’s eye could actually be an issue. But other than that, the umpire needs to develop a sense of humor. Marlins pitcher Drew Steckenrider claimed he had no issues with Beltre standing where he was when talking about what happened after the game.
Looking at an overhead view, it doesn’t seem like Beltre moved the on-deck circle all that much. But I’m assuming within the long and convoluted baseball rulebook, there’s probably a rule in there about not moving the on-deck circle that results in getting ejected.
Adrian Beltre was ejected for dragging the on-deck circle after ump asked him to get in it. You can see how far he moved it. pic.twitter.com/EdthGPrLNC
— Tim Healey (@timbhealey) July 27, 2017
Anyway, the Marlins wound up winning 22-10 and Beltre wound up getting two doubles and a home run, giving him 2,996 career hits.
[Photo: @megrowler]
