If You Had Manny Machado As The First Player To Be Ejected For Arguing About A Pitch Clock K....Come On Down!!!!
Oh man oh Manny. He had to be the leader in the clubhouse for the first guy tossed after being assessed a strikeout for not being ready by the new pitch clock standards. Saw this one coming a mile away. Now he did ask for time right at the "8" second mark but my guess is the umpire had already made up his mind. He saw the clock counting down, he knew what he was going to do. Was it dumb of Manny to sit there and act like Nomar in '98 with the batting gloves? Yes. Am I surprised it was Manny who was first to get the heave ho after arguing this? Not at all.
Worst part about the ejection was that Manny didn't even do anything? He seemed to just be talking with Ron Kulpa, but nothing too out of the ordinary. It seemed like a normal conversation. Now we obviously don't know what was said, but something set Kulpa off and Manny got an early shower. The ejection was BS, the strikeout wasn't. Now I do think that IF the batter hasn't called his 1 timeout and this happens....take the timeout away and proceed with the at-bat. He does it again, now he's out. That is what I would do with it but who am I? Regardless Manny has an early jump on the San Diego traffic and we got our first ejection from the pitch clock. It was always going to be Manny.