Right before Toronto Blue Jays ace Kevin Gausman fell down the stairs last weekend at Yankee Stadium, he had some very salient points to make about the state of umpiring in today's game.
Oh, wait, no he didn't. The home plate umpire missed exactly one call that burned him, at which point Gausman proceeded to beg the ump to expand the zone on his behalf as he walked five Yankees and pitched himself out of a doubleheader.
Jomboy dropped a full breakdown of Gausman's odyssey on Friday, slowing down the unraveling process so we could all read the righty's lips as he complained about clear balls for four slow-mo minutes. The very first pitch Gausman wanted — a low strike to Oswaldo Cabrera — was clearly on the corner, and should've been called. All the rest? Well off the plate, tailing off the corners. "Borderline" would be a stretch on the vast majority.
Unsurprisingly, both Gausman and Blue Jays manager John Schneider — the duo was ejected — blamed the umpire for the outing and doubleheader going off the rails, rather than themselves. The righty snapped repeatedly, then exited the game by yelling, "They're strikes, b***h!" before taking a tumble.
They were not, in fact, strikes, b***h.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider, pitcher Kevin Gausman throw tantrum against Yankees in latest Jomboy breakdown
While Gausman losing his mind about non-strikes was objectively hilarious, Schneider had a point about shoddy umping later on in the game, when Yankees ace Max Fried received several low strikes of his own after the game had begun to get out of hand.
The Jays' manager had every reason to lose his mind. What he did not have every reason to do was blame the home plate umpire for his pitcher getting rocked and tiring out the bullpen in his stead.
Watch the 4:40 mark specifically. The ump's dismissive responses to Schneider's assertion that he "sent [his] f***ing pitcher out of the f***ing game" ("Oh, my fault?") is pricelessly derisive.
The Yankees went on to sweep the doubleheader, and the Blue Jays were so enraged that they stormed back twice this week against the Boston Red Sox bullpen in an effort to prove themselves worthy. Ultimately a real win-win for the Yanks, even though Gausman got hot-headed for very little reason.