Before he returned to the Red Sox rotation on Tuesday night against the Mets, after missing two starts with a shoulder injury, pitcher Walker Buehler told reporters he expected to be on a limitation when he returned. Probably 80, 90 pitches, he reasoned.
In fact, he threw 52, and the 52nd pitch was a beauty, down but still over the knee, and inside, but still comfortably over the corner of the plate. Except home plate ump Mike Estabrook did not see it that way. Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor stole second on the play, and Estabrook waved the pitch off as a ball.
Buehler exploded, and fired off some choice, four-letter expletives. Estabrook responded by approaching the mound and quickly ejected Buehler from the game. Manager Alex Cora, not happy about the call, or about Estabrook’s quick hook on Buehler, argued, too, and was also ejected.
Red Sox Bullpen Put Up Stellar Night
Manager Alex Cora deemed Estabrook as being “aggressive,” in his approach to Buehler.
“It was weird, they were going back and forth,” Cora said. “I don’t know what the exchange was, but I’ve been doing this for a few years. I was begging just to give him a break, like, ‘I’ll go out and you can throw me out, just keep the pitcher in the game.’ But I guess (Estabrook) had enough. I don’t know why. At that point, I had to go too. But initially it was a good day for us without me, so I decided to do it again.”
What happened after Buehler’s ejection was most impressive, however. The Red Sox bullpen picked up his slack and, even with Lindor on second base, shut down the Mets for the remainder of the evening.
Brennan Bernadino, Garrett Whitlock, Justin Wilson, Greg Weissert, Justin Slaten and closer Aroldis Chapman finished up the third inning and closed things out over the final six innings for a 2-0 win.
Walker Buehler Sends Strong Message
And it was the second straight night that the Red Sox bullpen chewed up significant innings, and did so without allowing a run.
On Monday, the Red Sox relievers took over for starter Hunter Dobbins in the fifth and closed out a 3-1 win without allowing a run. It’s the third time in the last four games that the Red Sox bullpen went at least four innings without allowing a run–in Saturday’s comeback 7-6 win over the Braves, the pen went 5.0 innings without allowing a run.
Even on Sunday, after starter Brayan Bello was shelled for seven runs in the first 4.1 innings, Sean Newcomb came in and allowed three runs over the final 4.2 innings. That gives the Red Sox bullpen an ERA of 1.25 in the last four games.
Recognizing the feat, Buehler sent a message to his relief crew on Tuesday.
“Bullpen full of savages!!! Brutal way to come back and horrendous spot to put those boys in but huge team win. I’ll be better! W!” Buehler captioned an Instagram post.
He addressed the ejection, too, with the media.
“Obviously, I put (the bullpen) in a really tough spot off of a day that we asked a lot out of them, so I’ve been in this league too long for that to happen,” Buehler said. “For me personally, it’s one of those things that you’re very conflicted in how you feel, very convicted in what I felt and saw. But at the same time, this is a team game and something I let get out of hand, and personally, that’s the disappointing part of it.”
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Red Sox’s Walker Buehler Sends ‘Savage’ Message to Bullpen After Ejection appeared first on Heavy Sports.