Breaking down what led to Skip Schumaker’s ejection in Miami Marlins loss to Giants

So what exactly happened in the eighth inning of the Miami Marlins’ 4-3 loss to the San Francisco Giants that led to Marlins manager Skip Schumaker being ejected?

Here’s the breakdown of the situation:

The Marlins had a runner on first base and two outs in the eighth inning when Schumaker sent pinch-hitter Nick Gordon to face right-handed pitcher Ryan Walker.

Giants manager Bob Melvin emerged from the dugout to signal for a pitching change. Taylor Rogers, a lefty, initially began making his way toward the mound. Melvin, however, apparently wanted closer Camilo Doval, a righty who did not appear to be warming up, to enter the game.

While the umpires figured out the miscommunication and Doval had extended time to warm up, Schumaker believed it should have been a pitch-clock violation which would have resulted in Gordon starting his at-bat ahead in the count 1-0.

The violation never came. Schumaker continued to argue his case for a few minutes to no avail and emerged from the dugout one final time after Doval threw his first pitch to argue some more about the situation before ultimately being tossed by home plate umpire Laz Diaz.

“I shouldn’t have been tossed for that,” said Schumaker, adding that he did not receive any clarity from the umpires about the situation. “That’s ridiculous.”

What Skip Schumaker said

Here are Schumaker’s full comments regarding the situation and the ejection.

On what clarity he can provide about what happened?

“I’d love to get clarification on it. He called for a righty. A lefty came out, Rogers came out. Obviously, they wanted Doval out there and Doval wasn’t coming out. There’s extra time, obviously, because once you signal, you’re supposed to start the clock and come out. Rogers comes out. The clock starts. He called the wrong guy or the wrong guy came out. I don’t know exactly what happened, but that clock starts. It’s not my fault that the wrong pitcher came out. Doval should be coming out right behind him if they called the wrong pitcher. He got an extra couple minutes to get loose. We’ve been called for Ball 1 many times when our pitchers are getting extra pitches in the bullpen. So we didn’t even get a ball called on Gordon. It should have been Ball 1 and he should not have gotten extra pitches. So I’m still trying to figure out what happened. Guys make mistakes in calling different arms. I’ve got no problem with the mistake or whatever it was, a miscommunication. I don’t care about that. I care about what happened after that. At the very minimum, it should have been 1-0. I’m still not sure why they think they were right. It’s OK if you’re wrong. Just admit it. It’s fine, but I just don’t understand why and what just happened. I shouldn’t have been tossed for that. That’s ridiculous.”

So you didn’t get clarity?

“I’m looking forward to it.”

Is that the first time you’ve seen something like that?

“I’ve never seen it before. Again, there’s mixed ups and miscommunication at times about bullpens and who’s coming in. I was in the World Series in Texas when [Tony] La Russa called for a different guy, but that happens and I’m OK with [that], but they missed some communication part. When [Giants pitching coach] Bryan Price walks out to the mound, obviously there was miscommunication with who was coming in. That’s OK. That happens. We’re allowed to make mistakes as coaches and managers or whatever. But the fact that they got extra time, I have an issue with [that] with the umpires.”

Pool report from home plate umpire Laz Diaz

El Extrabase reporter Daniel Alvarez conducted a pool report with Diaz postgame about the situation. Here is what Diaz had to say.

What happened in the eighth inning when Melvin came out to get the pitcher?

“When Melvin came out, he called for the pitcher in the bullpen. When a pitcher came out of the bullpen, he saw it was the wrong pitcher, so immediately he said ‘No, that’s not the guy I wanted. I wanted the other guy, Doval.’ [First base umpire] Tripp [Gibson] called and told him to go back and then brought in Doval. Apparently, Doval was not warming up, so once we said ‘Hey, we want Doval’ and all of that mix-up was going on, Doval went out there and threw a couple pitches and started getting warmed up because that’s what we wanted. Now, he comes out of the bullpen, Tripp checks him and then he starts the clock. Skip wanted a pitch violation, but there was no violation because he got checked on the track and then when he came in, he stopped throwing at 50 seconds.”

What was Skip Schumaker arguing about?

“He wanted a pitch violation. We just spoke to our boss and they’re going to talk about it because this has never happened before. They’re going to go through the upper echelons and decide on a rule on that.”

So just to be clear, it was only on the pitch clock violation that Schumaker was arguing, not about the mix-up on which pitcher was entering the game?

“It wasn’t confusion because the rule states — and we have it here — if he sees that the wrong pitcher is coming in and he immediately notices, he could stop. That’s what he did. He noticed the wrong pitcher was coming in. He stopped and got the right pitcher.”

Why did you ultimately eject Schumaker?

“Because he kept arguing about the pitch clock. That’s why I had to throw him out.”