Phils grumble at umps as season slips away
PHILADELPHIA >> Perspective renewed amid the nerveracking quiet of a resigned clubhouse, Bryce Harper correctly lectured himself for the bottom-line ramification of his actions Sunday afternoon.
That wasn’t going to change his opinion on the matter, though.
Harper didn’t take too kindly to a third-strike call by umpire Gabe Morales in the bottom of the fourth inning, but as usual, baseball’s $330 million man didn’t complain much as he stalked toward the dugout. Then he walked right down the steps and into the tunnel toward a video replay set-up, and quickly confirmed what he knew to be true.
“Wasn’t even close,” Harper said after the Phillies weren’t really close, either, in a 6-3 loss to the Boston Red Sox.
Upon further review, Harper couldn’t keep quiet. As next batter Rhys Hoskins was taking a strike, Harper yelled those same words (maybe with an extra pejorative or two) at Morales, and all ejection stuff broke out.
“I said, it’s not even bleeping close and that’s it,” Harper said, doing his own verbal editing. “I didn’t say a word after that until he tossed me, then I walked down the dugout and came back and kind of let him have it. It just sucks. You’re in the middle of a race and you’re in a 1-2 count and (Red Sox starter Rick) Porcello throws a front-hipper like he did in my first at-bat, which was a good pitch. I’m going to tip my cap when he throws me a good pitch, but I disagreed with that call.”
Harper has disagreed with a lot of calls, of course, but rarely lets it get to him the way this one did. Of course, at that point, the Phillies were already on the short end of a 5-1 score, courtesy of Jason Vargas ... and the guy who hit the grand slam he gave up, Boston’s Christian Vazquez.
Not nice of him to do that, by the way.
“Really not anticipating a swing like that on a 2-1 breaking ball,” Phillies starter and loser Vargas said. “Yeah, you know, just wasn’t anticipating that. So tip your cap to him on that. He had a great last two days. He really gave us some fits. Yeah, I’d much rather if he didn’t play.”
Yeah, but no one can have everything they want, whether it’s a win when they absolutely have to have one on this and every other schedule day going forward ... or even a bloody ball call by an umpire showing some very blue ego.
“I kind of looked back at him and said, ‘That’s not a strike,’” Harper said. “He kind of looked at me like, ‘Yeah, right, stupid.’ It was that kind of look and I went back and thought, ‘Maybe he’s right.’ I went back and looked at it and it wasn’t close.
“It’s just tough. You can’t get thrown out in that situation, of course. I don’t want to get thrown out in that situation. But, you know, it happened.”
Morales wasted no time ejecting Harper once he started to yell from the dugout. That sent manager Gabe Kapler rocketing up the steps to stand up for his money player, and he was promptly tossed, too.
And so it essentially ended, right there in the bottom of the fourth inning. A shaky start by Vargas in the first to spot the Red Sox a quick run, a grandiose blast by Vazquez — who would hit another homer later in the already gone game — in the third inning for four more Red Sox runs, and finally Morales running both Harper and Kapler in the fourth inning to not only essentially end the game, but allbut officially exorcise all matter of playoff prayers, too.
“Definitely a tough spot,” Kapler said. “From here on out it’s like Game 7 of a playoff series. Every time we play a baseball game, it’s Game 7 of a playoff series and we look to scratch and claw and fight to win each one of them going forward.”
That said, Kapler wasn’t regretting any argument action by him or Harper, no matter how critical the game was to the Phillies’ feeble playoff chances.
“I think that, in this particular case, I thought Bryce had an opportunity to say his piece and the best thing at that point would’ve been to give him a little bit more room to say his piece,” Kapler said. “I just think it was a big enough situation where a little bit longer leash (by Morales) would’ve been valuable.”
Harper wasn’t going to soft-peddle any talk about whether Morales should have heard him out for at least a heartbeat or two before smirking at and/or subsequently tossing him. Instead, Harper took a roundabout cut at the ump.
“Usually, if I say it’s not close, I don’t get tossed right away and I kind of shut up,” Harper said. “So I say my piece and I shut up and I stay in the game.”
Not this time. Not this ump.
“If a pitcher throws a good pitch, I’m all about it,” Harper added. “Like I said, first at-bat Porcello threw that front-hipper and punched me out, so I tipped my cap to him right there. So the next atbat, I’m kind of sitting on the same pitch because he kind of did the same thing and it wasn’t close. You get into a 2-2 count against him and you see another pitch. He might have punched me on the next pitch, but also I might have hit a double in the gap and I’m on second base.
“But on both sides, you have to be better. Especially in these games right now, you have to be better back there. I know he’s not trying to call a strike or not call a ball, but he just has to be better for me. It’s not like I sit here going, ‘They’re not going to make mistakes.’ I miss heaters down the middle, too. It’s part of it, especially in games like this.”