Ejected and Dejected

Disclaimer: I was not able to watch the last half of the game live, which means I only saw the yelling and ejection on replays.

Dustin Pedroia, the unofficial captain of this Red Sox team, was ejected last night. In the bottom of the 8th inning, Pedroia checked his swing, but first base umpire Paul Nauert called it a third strike. As much as Pedroia ranted and raved, he was not ejected until after he made comments in the top of the 9th inning. Pedroia was done, but his mouth wasn’t. Here’s the Twitter feed from Boston Globe writer Pete Abraham during the incident:

Pete Abraham @PeteAbe
Pedroia now yelling from the dugout at the 1B umpire, Paul Nauert, who rung him up.

Plenty of umps would have tossed him by now.

Pedroia at the far end of the dugout still yelling. Asking for it at this point.

Pedroia just said his favorite cartoon character was Buck Rogers. I might be wrong.

Calm rules as Pedroia goes out to play second. Not even a glance at the ump. Stay tuned for Expletive Deleted Theater afterward.

Pedroia is going to get run now. Nose to nose with Nauert.

Or at least Bobby will get run.

Pedroia got tossed. Valentine tried but didn’t.

Second ejection for Pedroia. First since 2008.

Back in high school this would have been worth a “Kick your dog, ump. He’s lying.”

As stated, this is only the second time in his career in which Pedroia was ejected, which is pretty impressive considering how passionate the second baseman is. Bobby Valentine tried his best to get ejected as well, but he was unsuccessful. Here are the comments Valentine made to the media after the game:

“It looked like he checked his swing from our vantage point. Can’t get it back…I was pretty angry and supporting my guy. Probably said more to him than I said other times and gotten thrown out. He wasn’t going to throw me out unless I made a complete fool of myself or punched him or something.”

(I could make a comment about how Valentine can’t even get ejected when he’s trying, but I won’t.) I think the important thing to point out is this team is angry, and they’re fighting. It was obvious the Red Sox were trying to win last night. Lester was great the first 6 innings of the game, but the 7th inning dragged him down and he gave up 4 runs. In my opinion, Lester should’ve been taken out after 6 innings. He was close to the magic “100 pitch” mark, and with the way he has been pitching as of late, it would’ve made more sense to bring in a reliever (not Melancon, like Valentine did though).

The Sox needed to win this game; they need to win every game really. Tonight is the return of Josh Beckett (5-9 4.54 ERA) versus Matt Harrison (13-6, 3.17 ERA). A series win and an winning homestead would be nice… and much needed.