Dodgers: Walker Buehler Talks About Getting Thrown Out of the Game Friday night
Walker Buehler was tossed late in Friday night’s game against the New York Mets after expressing his frustration with two of home plate umpire Nestor Ceja’s calls during a previous at-bat. The Dodgers hurler allowed an RBI infield single by first baseman Pete Alonso during a then 3-1 ball game. That ended up being the determining factor in the right-handed ace being lifted in the top of the eighth inning.
As he was walking towards the dugout, Buehler shouted towards Ceja for a few missed calls. That would include Alonso’s single, which Walker believed had hit his foot in the box and should’ve been called foul.
During the postgame presser, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and Buehler both downplayed the ejection, citing the 27-year old fireballer’s competitive edge as the reason for his chirping towards the ump.
The Dodgers skipper chuckled as he said he hadn’t realized that his pitcher was even ejected at that time and lightly alluded to Buehler’s response in the heat of the moment.
“I didn’t realize until later that he got ejected,” Roberts said. “I was waiting for him to be on the bench so he was probably chirping a little too much.”
Buehler reiterated what his skipper said and conceded that the ejection may have been warranted given his response after being pulled from the game.
“Just trying to be competitive and thinking that I’m making pitches that I haven’t looked at but probably are balls,” Buehler said. “Just a little bit frustrating there at the end. He told me to stop and I didn’t stop so I get what he did. That’s his job.”
Buehler has played a tremendous role in the Dodgers winning 12 of their last 13 games, striking out a total of 18 batters and surrendering just three earned runs in that span.
Unphased by the Cy Young Award chatter, the dominant right-hander said his primary focus is winning ball games for a club that is now just 1.5 games out of first place in the NL West.
“It’s not something I really care about,” Buehler said when asked about the Cy Young race that is currently wide open. “I want us to win games and win the division and get to the playoffs and do what we did last year.”
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The replay clearly showed that the ball Alonso hit for that infield single was off his foot. The umpire blew that call and MLB should hold that ump liable upon seeing the review .
To be fair the ump also missed the 3rd strike on Mc Neil.
umpires have been missing calls forever in baseball. part of the game. Buehler needs to keep his emotions in check.
yeah, but i can live with him getting tossed AFTER he was already exiting the game. by far the lesser of two evils. plus, it establishes a precedent that MAY stick with that ump…buehler’s argument was CORRECT, the ump was wrong, buehler let him know, a lot, and maybe next time he’ll trust BUEHLER’S eyes…the fact that buehler isn’t talking shite about the guy, that he’s saying the ump was in the right to toss him…they respect that, and since walker was right, maybe WB gets a little bump in credibility with him in the future. may buy him a call or two a game at the right time. so if it isn’t obvious, i’ve decided not only can i LIVE with what WB did, i am GLAD he did. gotta stand up for yourself when you’re right, and if you can admit where you DID go wrong while still being factually correct is a big thing.
Years ago i remember the grounds crew in San Francisco watering down the area around first base to slow down Maury Wills from stealing bases, the wet ground did 2 things , less traction and bogged him down. Why is it Trea Turner goes head first back into first base and comes up soaking wet? The dodgers ground crew is counter productive to what Turner is trying to do , is Roberts ordering they soak the area around first base to keep Turner from embarrassing him and his anti Little ball concept?
I’m not a huge fan of Roberts and his bad decision-making tendencies, but your theory is just ridiculous. In fact, i remember hearing or reading somewhere that Roberts has given Trea a permanent green light whenever he gets on base. There’s no way you actually believe Roberts would sabotage his own team this way. I’m just gonna assume you were joking…
All season long in many games there have been terrible calls by the home plate ump. It’s been getting worse every year. The HP ump controls the game like no other. It’s very important for the integrity of the game the balls and strikes are accurate. As much as I have been against it (for 50 yrs) I believe it’s time for “robo umps”.
yeah, just because balls and strikes may be getting called automatically doesn’t mean there’s no place for the home plate umpire, so i think robo ump should happen as well. guy still has to run the game. maybe even have robo ump relay the call to the ump so he can inform the players. and plays at the plate, communicating with the teams and managers…it’s not like they’d be eliminating the position. it’s still the most important ump out there, whether he’s “calling” balls & strikes or not.
This year seems to be the worse ever for umps getting balls and strikes correctly. Robo umps have to be the future. The ball to McNeil was clearly, way off the plate. But, this year, it seems umps are calling anything way off the plate a strike.
Where was Dave in all of this? Most managers would be in the umps face sticking up for his pitcher and then willing be ejected from the game along with the pitcher. No, Dave just does basically nothing just like when our batters get hit by pitches. Oh, the one thing he does is that he keeps Bellinger in the lineup even against lefties.
Great insight into Walker’s mindset during that tough moment! It’s interesting to hear his perspective on getting thrown out. It shows how passionate he is about the game. Looking forward to seeing how he bounces back in the next outing!
Interesting insights from Buehler! It’s tough to see a player of his caliber ejected, but it’s great that he’s able to reflect on it. I hope he takes this experience to improve his game moving forward. Go Dodgers!