Showalter, Gausman and Joseph on ejections and 4-2 loss

BOSTON - The Orioles already have a pitcher in place who could make Thursday night's start against the Red Sox. He was summoned to Boston tonight, with the intent of possibly using him in relief.

Richard Bleier and Ubaldo Jiménez were needed to cover the last seven innings after Kevin Gausman's shocking ejection. Plate umpire Sam Holbrook tossed him for hitting Xander Bogaerts with a 77 mph curveball.

Let's start with a statement from Holbrook, collected by a pool reporter. Holbrook didn't take questions:

"Just given the situation and the tension between the two clubs and all the stuff that's gone over the past few weeks, we're all on high alert with anything. I know that the ball was a curveball, but it hit him square in the back and just making a split decision at that point right there, there needs to be an end to this stuff, and I felt like an ejection was the right thing to do at that time, and that's what we did. Thankfully, we didn't have any more problems the rest of the game."

The Orioles won't be satisfied, of course. Holbrook's decision created a domino effect and forced them into at least one roster move.

One night after Manny Machado filled the air with profanities, Caleb Joseph described the ejection as "a bunch of malarkey."

"I think the video shows I was probably the most shocked person in the stadium. I could not believe that he ejected him. I couldn't believe it," Joseph said.

"The reason that I got so upset is because yes, the in-game decision is very important, but there's ripples we're going to have to deal with for the next five, six, seven days. We had to cover (seven) innings in the bullpen and that's huge. That can set a team back five or six days. Sam's a fine guy, a good umpire, but tonight he missed a call. He missed a call, and what I would like to see, and we see it all the time with umpires, if they're unsure, they gather together.

"When you're making a quick decision that can directly impact not only the game, but a week's worth of games after that, the best course of action is to get everybody together, get four minds involved and see what everybody thinks and make a decision. There's no timetable, no time limit on when you eject a player or not. Why can't we do that? If we can do it on busted-up plays, why can't we do it for pitches that they think are deemed on purpose?"

Gausman bolted toward Holbrook screaming that it was a curveball, a harmless pitch that slipped from his hand and led to his first career ejection.

"I mean, I didn't know who he threw out at first," Gausman said. "Just complete bush league, to be honest. To throw me out in that situation after what (Chris) Sale did yesterday, throwing 98 (mph) behind a guy on purpose, everybody knew it, and you're going to throw me out for hitting a guy on a curveball? In the second inning? I mean, it's pretty bush league.

"First curveball I threw of the day. I was trying to throw one with a lot of depth and it slipped out of my hand."

It also caused manager Buck Showalter to burn Jiménez and Bleier, the latter covering three innings.

"That's what I told him right away. 'You're screwing our bullpen,'" Gausman said. "Pretty frustrating. For some reason, those guys can get away with throwing 98 behind a guy's leg, who he has had two surgeries on, and I throw a curveball and he tosses me."

The Orioles are in agreement that Holbrook overreacted based on the recent history of these teams and todays' conference call involving commissioner Rob Manfred.

"Absolutely," Gausman said, "but for him, if you're going to throw somebody out for any pitch, you better warn both sides before the game starts. That's the way I look at it. Like I said, very frustrating. Obviously, ... I'll just leave it at that."

The Orioles keep going back to Sale's pitch behind Machado's knees last night and how so far no punishment has been administered. Sale wasn't ejected and worked eight innings for the win.

"He did it on purpose and everybody knew it," Gausman said. "For him to get away with it, and I hit a guy with a curveball and they throw me out of the game, that's pretty ridiculous.

"Maybe if I hit a guy with 98, then I might get tossed. But I mean, a curveball 0-0 to start off the second inning? That's ridiculous."

Choose your favorite adjective.

"He said something to Kevin," Joseph said. "I was yelling my opinion at him and he didn't say anything to me and there wasn't anything spoken after the game, which I understand. Once it's done, it's done. You've just got to continue to play the game. No sense in trying to bring it up afterward

"I was shocked. I just could not believe that that would happen, and I have to sit here and answer questions while the Red Sox are on their way home, and it's malarkey. It's a bunch of malarkey. It's unacceptable. It's too bad, too bad.

"It is frustrating. We're trying to play ball here. The guy throws a curveball. He's got 97 in the tank. You're going to choose to hit him with 77? Give me a break, give me a break. I'm not trying to bury Sam here. We're so ready for this thing to be over. We're so ready. I'm the most excited person to get the hell out of Boston. Get on with it and get out of here. Let's just get out of here and play ball. That's all we want to do here is play ball.

"I hope it dies down, but who knows? When the decisions are in the hands of the umpires, you don't know. These teams are good and to pitch, you have to pitch to certain parts of the plate, period, and you have to establish certain pitches.

"It's freezing outside. The balls are slick. Guys are trying to make pitches. Certain guys stand certain places on the plate. You've got to execute pitches, so now what happens? What if a guy's on the plate and he's on the white chalk? His elbows are leaning over and it's a strike. What happens if he gets hit? Is it automatic ejection? There's too much gray area right now, way too much gray area, and it prohibits us playing the game. It prohibits pitchers from doing what they do to try and get outs.

"We don't have Chris Sale that throws 97 and strikes out the world. We have guys that use their pitches and use their pitches in certain locations to get guys out. We have Gold Glove-caliber defense, period. We've got to go in there and they've got to make certain pitches, and a curveball got away and he got ejected. It's malarkey. It's freaking BS."

The team seems to be in agreement that Holbrook overreacted, had a panic moment and influenced a game.

"I think in his heart of hearts he knows he made the wrong decision," Joseph said. "We're human. We're all human. It's part of it. I'll be the first to say I've made plenty of mistakes in my life and I don't want to be judged by the one mistake I made. But I guarantee if you go ask Xander Bogaerts if he thought Kevin Gausman was throwing at him on purpose, he would say, 'No.' So, of course, I really truly believe that Sam would say he missed it.

"Now, at that point, you have to just play the game. What's done is done. You have to move on, you have to play the game. We didn't lose the game because Kevin got thrown out. We lost the game because we gave up three runs in the third inning. We've got to move on. But I'm telling you, there's better ways to handle this and we really got to get a hold of this because there's lasting, ripple effects that are going to hurt us for three or four days and guys are going to get sent out that don't deserve to get sent out. Stuff like that. It's just one decision can effect so many people.

"He's not thinking about that, which is fine. In the heat of the moment when stuff is going on, I totally understand. And I get what's going on. But stuff like that just cannot happen. Can't happen."

There's also a feeling that the Red Sox are getting away with pretty much everything and the Orioles are getting the short end of the stick. And now they're no longer tied for first place.

"It sure seems that way, right?" Joseph said. "We're never going to be the team to sit there and say woe is us, you know? But I think what happened today, the majority of people if they're looking at it through unbiased sunglasses, they're going to see that tonight was a mistake. At the end of the day, we've got a game tomorrow, we've got to come out and try to even this series up. That's one thing that matters.

"We can't be dwelling on what happened tonight. We've got to pack it in, go back, rest on it, come back and get fired up to play tomorrow, see what happens,. But yeah, sometimes it feels that way. But you don't play this game on oh, woe is us. You play the game on, 'We're a great team, we know we're a great team and we're going do what we need to do to win a ballgame.'"

Red Sox manager John Farrell didn't expect Gausman to be tossed out of the game.

"I think it caught us all a little bit off guard," he said. "That's the best I can say right now. Surprising."

Showalter wasn't given much of an explanation.

"It's frustrating to lose anybody," he said after also watching center fielder Adam Jones get ejected in the fifth inning after striking out. "Sam's a good umpire. He's trying to do what he thinks is right. But obviously we're biased. We know the sincerity of the intent. Obviously, he's not trying to hit anybody. You've got a 77 mph pitch compared to a 96 last night. I mean, you can figure it out. You guys are smart. You've been watching a lot of baseball.

"It's frustrating. You keep trying to do the right thing and take the high ground and it's frustrating. It's hard to turn the other cheek, but you keep trying to. But it's unfortunate that those decisions come. But we have to deal with them and it affects other people and a lot of players and a lot of things that go on.

"It's one of those things. You don't sit there and bleed. You do something about it and you make adjustments. We knew we were probably going to need a reliever tomorrow, so we had brought somebody in tonight. We had made plans for a long reliever tomorrow. We'll see if we need to add somebody else. We're fortunate we're playing a night game tomorrow."

Jiménez no longer can start, again leaving Showalter in scramble mode. But he prides himself on being ready for any emergency.

"We have the contingency in place," he said. "We knew Ubaldo could give us one last night. He only threw 67 pitches last time out. He had a real light work day. Can't say enough about Richard and Ubaldo tonight in a time of need. Really stepped forward and actually gave us a chance to get back in there, but their pitching was good again."

It helps when your starter throws more than 20 pitches.

"It's obviously surprising," Showalter said. "I think anybody that knows baseball knows he's not trying to hit him with a 77 mph curveball or changeup. I'm not sure what it was. Just makes you shake your head.

"Let me tell you something, Sam's a good man, he's a good umpire. That's why he's a crew chief and I'm sure in his mind he was doing the right thing. Obviously, we disagree with it."

Showalter assumed that Jones was tossed for verbalizing his displeasure with Holbrook's strike zone.

"I guess he just didn't like something he said as he was walking away to go back to the dugout," Showalter said.

Meanwhile, the Orioles will keep trying to plant their feet on that high road.

"I don't get involved in all the drama or whatever," Showalter said. "I try to keep a sense of reality and do the right thing as one of the leaders on this club. And continue to try to do what's in the best interests of our team and our players and their families."