UMPIRE EMBARRASSMENT

Home plate umpire Marty Foster embarrassed himself Saturday, ejecting Nationals’ third baseman Anthony Rendon essentially without cause after a called third strike, and Joe Torre really ought to suspend him for it.

As replays clearly showed, Rendon didn’t say a word about the called third strike, which looked inside, and merely flipped his bat so it landed on the other side of the plate, toward the Nationals’ dugout.

Foster immediately ejected him, the first time Rendon had been tossed in his career, sending Nationals’ manager Davey Martinez into a tirade that did warrant ejection.

Worse than Foster’s quick trigger was crew chief Joe West’s explanation:

“The pitch before the strikeout, he walked completely out of the (batter’s box), which hitters aren’t allowed to do. Then when Marty called strike three, he threw the bat. You have some options there, and Marty felt what he did was showing him up worse than an equipment violation would have been, and that’s why he ejected him.

“You have to do something or he loses all respect from the players.”

What nonsense. For one thing, to say Rendon threw the bat was quite an exaggeration. But more to the point, that mentality is exactly what causes players to lose respect for umpires that are looking for reasons to throw players out of a game.

Maybe if umps were held accountable publicly for such actions, they’d show a little more restraint. Unfortunately, MLB almost never takes such action, and certainly not publicly.