After a strikeout in the fourth inning, Mets right fielder Starling Mars was ejected by home plate umpire Manny González for arguing balls and strikes in Monday night’s 3-1 loss to the Cleveland Guardians.
After the game, Marte gave a context about what happened.
“I didn’t say anything to him to throw me out of the game, I was just telling him I wasn’t happy with the pitches he called strikes and I ended up making a hand gesture and he just threw me out of the game,” he said.
With two outs and a runner on first and New York trailing 2-1, Marte had a six-pitch at-bat that ended with a called strike three in the top outside corner that left the outfielder unhappy. Marte exchanged a few words with González after the (correct) decision before returning to the dugout and everything seemed fine.
However, when Marte ran back onto the field during the bottom half of the inning, that’s when Gonzalez called him out and ejected him from the game.
“I was surprised he kicked me out there,” Marte said. “I felt like at that point I had a case to tell him what was going on and I felt like I had called a lot of bad pitches at that point throughout the game, so when that happens and in the situation that I came in, I felt like it was appropriate. to say something to him, but yeah, I was definitely surprised that he kicked me out there.”
Tyrone Taylor He came on to play right field and took Marte’s place in the lineup, batting fifth.
The 35-year-old finished his night 0 for 2 with a strikeout and a bizarre 1-6-5-3 double play with a comeback with a runner on second base in the second inning where JD Martínez he was trapped in a run before Marte was tagged out at first base.
“I saw JD was on the list and I saw that if he stayed on that list he could move up to second there, but then when I saw he went back to second I knew I needed to come back and he was just too far off base and he took me out.” Mars said.