Leyland ejected

Leyland ejected
BECK'S BLOG

What was shaping up to be a long afternoon actually became a short game for Tigers manager Jim Leyland, who was ejected in the third inning of Thursday afternoon's game against the Red Sox.

Barely five minutes after Leyland had to take cleanup hitter Miguel Cabrera out of the game with a pulled left hamstring, he was out to the mound to replace starting pitcher Dontrelle Willis, who had just walked four Boston batters in the third inning to force in a run without allowing a hit. Leyland handed the ball to reliever Zach Miner and was making his way back to the dugout when he apparently said something in the direction of home-plate umpire Jeff Nelson.

Nelson quickly ejected a startled Leyland, who turned and went up to Nelson's face to get his argument's worth.

It marked the second ejection of the season for Leyland, who was tossed from a game last month at Minnesota after umpire Paul Schrieber put his hand on Magglio Ordonez's back to direct him towards the dugout following a called third strike.

* Posted on June 4, 2009 at 1:55 PM

Leyland ejected, apologizes
BECK'S BLOG

What was shaping up to be a long afternoon actually became a short game for Tigers manager Jim Leyland.

First came Miguel Cabrera's hamstring injury, which forced him out of the game after two innings. Minutes later, Dontrelle Willis suffered a third-inning breakdown, walking four batters and hitting another. But the cap came after Leyland went to the mound to remove Willis from the game, then was ejected by home-plate umpire Jeff Nelson on his way back to the dugout.

Leyland got into Nelson's face to get his ejection's worth, but said later he was at fault.

"I was wrong," Leyland said. "I want to apologize. I think what happened [was] some of our players, including our catcher, thought a couple pitches were strikes. And I was wrong. I think everybody wanted it so bad for Dontrelle and you get three runs on the board and you think there's a couple close pitches. But when you're that wild, you're not going to get close pitches.

"There were a couple close pitches, but the umpire was right. I was totally out of line, and I apologize for that."

It marked the second ejection of the season for Leyland, who was tossed from a game last month at Minnesota after umpire Paul Schrieber put his hand on Magglio Ordonez's back to direct him towards the dugout following a called third strike. That, too, was a game Willis pitched, but that played nothing into it.

Thursday was a situation where the support for Willis clearly came into play. He held down Boston's offense on a walk and two strikeouts through the first two innings, but seemingly came apart in the third after hitting Jacoby Ellsbury with an 0-2 pitch. He walked Julio Lugo on five pitches, struck out Chris Kottaras on a called third strike, then walked Dustin Pedroia, J.D. Drew and Kevin Youkilis consecutively to bring in two runs.

Somewhere in those pitches was one that Willis thought was a strike, because Willis said after the game that he let a call get to him. Apparently Leyland did, too.

"It was silly for me to get thrown out," Leyland said. "It appeared that I was frustrated, and maybe I was, maybe a little frustrated for Dontrelle, I don't know. You want it so bad for a guy, and everybody else wants it so bad for him. I overreacted. I'll pay whatever the penalty is, obviously.

"You get three runs, you're pumped up. Looks like you have a chance to have a good day. And when you get in a situation like that, it's a helpless feeling, trust me. Control has not been a problem for Dontrelle, but today for the first time, after you could see what was starting to go on for a little bit, you were hoping that he threw a strike. And that's a bad feeling. But it's not an excuse to get run or anything. I wish I wouldn't have. I'm kind of ashamed of myself, really, because it's not very professional."

* Posted on June 4, 2009 at 8:02 PM