Andy Green turned into Andy Red Tuesday night.
During the 3rd inning of the Padres first meeting with the Pirates, Green was tossed after the umpiring crew changed a balk call – twice – and wound up handing Pittsburgh an extra run.
A balk was originally called on Padres pitcher Colin Rea when he awkwardly hopped off the rubber during a pitch to Francisco Cervelli.
Rea saw Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen start down the 3rd base line when he started his windup and was thrown off guard briefly.
The umps immediately awarded Andrew McCutchen home plate to give Pittsburgh a 2-0 lead. But then the crew huddled and changed the call and put McCutchen back on 3rd base.
Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle came out of the dugout to argue his case for a couple minutes and eventually McCutchen was allowed to score again. As you can imagine, Green was shocked by this development.
Let’s just say that if the television was on mute, Green had a classic “What is going on here?!?!?” expression on his face. And that’s probably the PG-13 version.
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After arguing with the home plate umpire, Green was tossed – but he made a point to clear his mind before Mark McGwire helped escort him off the field.
After the game, Green thoroughly explained his frustration.
“As long as I’ve been on staff, I don’t think anyone’s ever seen a reversal of a reversal,” said Green, “and that’s where some of the frustration was on my part.
Not to mention (Hurdle) came out to argue a balk which should’ve been an immediate ejection. Shouldn’t have even been his opportunity to have any other say at that point and time."
"As far as the rules are concerned," continued Green, "you can’t come out on the field and argue a balk. First time they’re explaining their reversal –that’s fine. After that, you’re arguing for a balk. That should be an automatic ejection – on his part! Not me getting ejected. So I had a beef on that – that was a little frustrating. And then couple that with the fact that the feeling was that they reversed it (the reversal) based on (Hurdle’s) input coming back out who I’m guessing talked to his video guy – which it’s not reviewable! So the way that all played out right there – I’ll let somebody else draw their own conclusions, but it’s not the way it’s supposed to play out.”
Mic drop.
Green’s ejection seemed like it ignited the offense. McGwire took over as acting manager and even won a challenge soon after the crazy balk double reversal. But more importantly, three different Friars hit homers to turn a 3-0 deficit into a 5-3 advantage.
In the 4th inning, Wil Myers atoned for two early strikeouts by booming a 2-run shot off of Pittsburgh started Francisco Liriano.
Then in the 5th, catcher Derek Norris broke out of his slump and sent a moonshot to straight-away center. His 2-run homer pushed San Diego ahead 4-3.
The next batter – Adam Rosales – proceeded to smash a towering homer off the Western Metal Supply Company building for what would be a key insurance run.
Pittsburgh got one run back in the 8th on an error by Rosales, but he and Alexei Ramirez were able to turn a double play to escape further damage.
Ferenando Rodney notched his second save by pitching a scoreless 9th.
The Padres improved to 5-0 when they score at least 4 runs this season.
Drew Pomeranz takes the hill Wednesday at 7:10 p.m. against the Pirates. Pittsburgh counters with Jeff Locke.
