Where are you going? Diamondbacks trying to get signs straight
For the third time in the past 10 days, a Diamondbacks baserunner blew past a stop sign from coach Tony Perezchica at third base, with Steven Souza Jr. scoring in the fourth inning on Thursday night despite Perezchica wanting him to hold.
Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo was thankful the outcome went in his team’s favor – the second time it’s worked out that way – but he doesn’t like the fact that it keeps happening.
“We want to get that stuff right,” Lovullo said. “Those are conversations that we have.”
Lovullo said his position players have requested that if they’re going to be seeing a stop sign that Perezchica shows it to them sooner than he has been.
“Tony is instinctually watching the play to make sure the throw is going to get lined up, the receiver is going to catch the ball, whether it be a cut-and-relay situation and the throw is not off line, and then he’s making his decision,” Lovullo said. “That’s what good thirdbase coaches do. I think he might need to give them a little bit more time based on what they’re asking.”
Last week in San Francisco, the Diamondbacks’ Nick Ahmed ran through a stop sign and was cut down at home on a relay throw from the Giants’ Brandon Crawford. Eduardo Escobar did the same on Wednesday against the Padres, but, like Souza, he wound up scoring.
Souza’s ejection
Souza found himself in the middle of another key moment on Thursday night when, after getting rung up on Strike 3 in the eighth inning, he was ejected by home-plate umpire Mark Ripperger for arguing the call.
Souza’s spot in the order came up with a runner on base in the ninth inning, and his replacement, Socrates Brito, grounded out to end the inning.
“Nothing kills me more than having to sit there (in the clubhouse) and watch my AB get taken from me,” he said.
Souza did not think what he said to Ripperger warranted an ejection.
“I said, ‘Where do you got that?’” Souza recalled. “He said, ‘There’s nothing wrong with those pitches.’ And I didn’t hear him so I said, ‘What?’ and he said, ‘There’s nothing wrong with those pitches.’ I said, ‘They’re down, they’re sinkers and they’re down,’ and then I walked away and as I walked away I said, ‘Gosh dang it, clean it up,’ and that’s when he threw me out.”
It was the second time Souza was ejected from a game this year. The first time was on May 12 against the Nationals when he tried to fling his bat toward the dugout after striking out, but it stuck to his hand and flew toward third base.
“I want to be able to talk to umpires and say something, at least in frustration, without crossing a line, and it’s getting to a point where I feel like I can’t say anything,” Souza said. “Maybe I’m a little too animated and they get a little frustrated and that’s something I need to work on. But it was frustrating the way it all turned out.”