DENVER – There were moments of frustration and anger displayed publicly Thursday by Braves pitcher Mike Foltynewicz, but as far as the ejection of catcher A.J. Pierzynski, well, the sometimes fiery veteran said he did nothing to warrant getting tossed.
In the 7-3 loss to the Rockies, Pierzynski was thrown out by home-plate umpire Mike Winters for kicking the ball after an eighth-inning play when shortstop Erick Aybar was called for interfering with base runner Daniel Descalso.
The ruling effectively made moot Pierzynski’s tag of Descalso at the plate, allowing the second run to score on the play and pushing Colorado’s lead to 6-1. Moments later, Winters ejected Pierzynski after the catcher kicked the ball toward the Rockies dugout, which Pierzynski said wasn’t accompanied by any words exchanged with the ump.
“You should go ask him why he threw me out,” Pierzynski said. “I kicked the ball over to their dugout because we needed a new ball. I’ve done that 100 times over my career. I wasn’t looking at him, I didn’t say anything to him, I just dropped the ball and I was standing there talking to Cabrera and I was just kicking it to get a new ball. I apologize for…maybe I should have picked it up and rolled it over there. I don’t know.
“I guess I was just lazy for not bending over and picking it up, but I’ve done that a bunch of times in my career. I guess it was just the heat of the moment. I don’t know. I didn’t even understand what had happened (on the interference ruling). We were trying to figure it out on the mound.”
The Rockies scored three runs (one earned) against rookie Mauricio Cabrera in that eighth inning, on two hits, a walk and the error charged to Aybar.
Cabrera hit Trevor Story with a pitch to start the inning, then walked Descalso. Both advanced on a sacrifice before Nick Hundley singled to drive in Story, with Descalso nearly running into Aybar as the shortstop moved toward the ball as it shot past into left field. Descalso was tagged out at the plate, but the interference ruling erased that.
“On that play Eric’s running for the ball and the guy’s behind him,” Braves interim manager Brian Snitker said. “It’s kind of hard to feel that guy (approaching) and stop and get out of the way when he’s trying to score. But (third-base umpire Mike Muchlinski) said the ball was by him and he’s got to get out of the way. That’s kind of hard to do when you’re chasing the ball and the guy’s behind you. It’s a tough thing. Did he interfere with him? Maybe. But sometimes that happens, you can’t help but do that. It’s just kind of a natural play right there sometimes.”
As far as the Pierzynski ejection, Snitker said, “He just said the ball dropped out of his glove and he kicked it to the side. I didn’t see it. Obviously I was talking to the third-base umpire. I got to the dugout, everybody said that didn’t need an ejection. Just kind of after-the-fact thing. He wasn’t mad at the umpire or anything, he just kicked the ball.”
Foltynewicz (3-4) gave up four hits, three runs and a career-high five walks with five strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings and a season-high 112 pitches including 50 balls. It was the third time in his past four road starts that he allowed five earned runs and at least one homer.
Still, he’s made significant progress this season and entered Thursday’s game on the best run of his career, with a 3.27 ERA in his previous nine starts and a .215 opponents’ average in the past six. He recorded 15 strikeouts and two walks in 14 innings over his past two starts before Thursday, and the only three runs charged to him in those games came in the eighth inning Saturday against the Rockies.
Two of those runs Saturday scored against the bullpen after Foltynewicz left the game. But Thursday, all three runs against him came on a huge Carlos Gonzalez homer that broke open a scoreless tie in the sixth inning, after Foltynewicz had issued a leadoff walk to Charlie Blackmon followed and DJ Lemahieu followed with a single.
Foltynewicz, who has worked to control his emotions in games, slipped a couple of times Thursday, showing his frustration after the homer – he got behind in the count against Cargo and left a 1-1 fastball over the plate – and after Snitker came out to get him later in the inning following a two-out walk and a slow infield single that Foltynewicz fielded and didn’t have enough time to get an out.
“It’s one of the things I’ve been working on really hard over the last three years,” he said. “At the same time, like I said before, when you battle your butt off like that and get deep in the games, for it to unfold the way it did and get taken out of a game with a seven-foot base hit, it’s tough. It’s something I’m definitely trying to control, but at the same time I’m a competitor and the first thing on my mind is trying to go out there and win for this team, and that’s what I try to do every time. It slips here and there, but I’m trying to get better at it and hopefully show no emotion out there and not let it faze me.”
Snitker said, “Yeah, after the home run, I thought (his emotions) kind of got away from him a little bit after that, to finish off that inning. And before he came out. It’s just going to be a work in progress with him. He’s got to be aware of it and continue to work at it, and not let – they hit a three-run homer here, that’s nothing. That’s an innings work right there that we can come back and do. He’s just got to keep pitching and keep yourself together right there, not let things get out of hand emotionally.”
Pierzynski was asked about Foltynewicz letting his emotions get the better of him.
: “I’m an emotional guy, too,” Pierzynski said. “So I understand the feelings and the frustrations, but as a pitcher you really have to figure out a way to harness and channel that. He’s done a better job of it this year than he did last year. It still gets away from him at time. We have some key words that we talk about and say if I go out there. He’s been really good. You see how he’s pitching, so, I mean, it’s not like he’s out there just losing (control of his emotions). He gets it back together.
“Tonight he made pitches after you could see the frustration. He’s gotten better. That’s encouraging.”
