In the most bush league call I have ever seen from an alleged major league umpire, Clayton Kershaw was ejected from last night’s Dodgers/Diamondbacks contest in the top of the 6th inning when his 0-1 pitch to Gerardo Parra clipped the D-Backs number 8 hitter on the elbow. You pretty much don’t have to know much else to think “that’s pretty stupid.” And it is.
There is a back story, of course, but first, let’s note the basics: Kershaw was cruising, having struck out 5, walked none, and given up only one hit (a one-out double to Parra in the third inning). With the Dodger bullpen, having been taxed in the previous two nights (including Tuesday’s ten inning affair, where rookie-turned-closer Javy Guerrra worked two innings before giving up the go-ahead run and was unavailable for the night), the team was looking to Kershaw to do as he has done on so many days this season and works some innings (he entered the day with a league-leading 213.2 innings pitched) and give the Dodgers a win. Having thrown just 63 pitches, Kershaw was looking at possibly his sixth complete game and third shutout. The Dodgers led 2-0, against and Arizona team that has come from behind 45 times this season (including the previous two nights at Dodger Stadium), and the Dodgers were, while likely not headed for October, were trying to stave off elimination as long as possible. And the best chance of keeping the Arizona offense at bay was by leaving the best pitcher on the Dodger roster (and, possibly, the best pitcher on the planet) on the bump. Any pitcher that gets himself chased in that circumstance is just as likely to be fined by his manager for a boneheaded move that could cost his team a game as he is by the league for throwing at a hitter.
The problem, of course, is that Parra deserved to get plunked. The night before, he stared down Hong-Chih Kuo after Kuo’s first pitch sailed over his head. A typical hitter is not going to like a 96 MPH baseball coming at their head, but anyone who follows the Dodgers—or reads a major league advance scouting report that they are given because they play professional baseball—knows that Kuo has had major control problems this season. Clinically, there is surely another way to put it, but in layman’s terms, Kuo has the “yips.” The once-dominating lefty spent six weeks on the disabled list with a psychological disorder, which he had also dealt with earlier in his career. Kuo’s control problems were clear in the first month of the season, but became pronounced one night at Dodger Stadium when problems became apparent for all when one of his warm-up throws sailed well clear of the 8-foot bullpen fence into shallow left field. He spent six weeks consulting psychologists before returning and is still not fully back to normal.
But Parra apparently cannot read a scouting report and assumed he was being thrown at. A few pitches later, he hit a home run to right field (a further example of the control problems Kuo has had—his 1.20 ERA earned him an All-Star selection in 2010, but this year his ERA is over 9.00, and before this season, Kuo had not given up a home run to a left-handed hitter since August 2009.) Parra then showboated around the bases before yapping at AJ Ellis as he crossed home plate. Kershaw—one of the Dodgers’ two franchise players—began appropriately hollering at the antics of a number 8 hitter who was grandstanding against a player who is literally dealing with a psychological disorder. But no warnings were given, and obviously the Arizona bench knew better (despite the old men engaging the 23-year-old Kershaw in a shouting match), as no one threw in retaliation at the Dodgers.
And while most fans were waiting for Kershaw to go after Parra, he clearly was not about to do so until the Dodgers had the game sealed up—something that a 2-run lead through five innings does not get you. Kershaw came in with a fastball to Parra, who could fairly be said to crowd the plate. Parra never moved his feet, simply pulling back his arms and allowing the ball to get him (which is not to begrudge Parra—Kershaw leads the National league in allowing the fewest base-runners per inning, so if he is willing to take one for the team to reach against the likely Cy Young winner, go for it, but Matt Kemp took several balls more inside than the one that hit Parra, and Kemp by the numbers is clear NL MVP). If Kershaw had plunked the punk in the 8th or 9th inning, he probably would have just walked into the dugout, knowing he was done. But in the 6th inning, there was still very much a game alive, and Kershaw (trying to win both for the team and to assure what should be his Cy Young award), clearly was not going for Parra. The Diamondback announcers (Mark Grace and some other homer) were laughing because it was absurd. No one left the Diamondback bench, and even the hot-headed Parra (who had stared down a sick man the night before) just headed to first base. The only person of the 29,000+ people in the ballpark who did not understand what was going on was Bill Welke (just recently, Welke ejected Blue Jays MVP candidate Jose Bautista after he had returned to the dugout. Kershaw’s ejection even drove the usually cool Don Mattingly stark raving mad, showing the most emotion from a Dodger manager since Tommy Lasorda had a heart attack in 1996.
The worst thing about this, of course, is just how bad MLB is in disciplining umpires who make not just bad calls, but demonstrate bad judgment. (In fairness, MLB is probably the best amongst the professional leagues—the NBA had referees literally fixing games and did nothing about it until the FBI arrested the crook. Almost surely, nothing will happen to Welke for not understanding immediately what even the most casual observer would know. And you see this all the time—umpires denying the bad calls that they made or walking after players to argue with them as they are walking back to the dugout. Arrogance amongst officials is so bad that it becomes a major news story when an umpire admits he was wrong.
Fans often yell at umpires for a bad call. Here, there is no doubt that the umpire is stinking and unshaven.
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