As you’ve probably seen already, home plate umpire Brian O’Nora was lacerated by a piece of Miguel Oliva’s maple bat last night in Kansas City, but as the Denver Post’s Troy Renck explains, said incident might not have even been the second weirdest thing to happen during the Royals’ defeat of Colorado.
Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki was charged with deception, the umpires ruling a catch on a ball that he appeared to purposely short-hop for a fourth-inning double play. In the end, anger engulfed the 7-3 loss, the Rockies boiling afterward over Ramon Ramirez’s errant pitches in Yorvit Torrealba’s direction.
“We know Ramon has good control, and from my standpoint it looked like it was on purpose. I think he should have been tossed,” Tulowitzki said of the former Rockies reliever. “He strikes out the side with pinpoint control in the eighth, and he’s doing that? Obviously, he was throwing at him.”
It unfolded like this: After having a friendly conversation in Spanish before the game, Ramirez and Torrealba raised eyebrows to open the ninth. Ramirez walked the catcher on four pitches. One whistled by Torrealba’s head, another behind his back.
Ramirez insisted afterward that the ball was wet from perspiration, saying “it slipped.” Torrealba wasn’t buying it. He said he was prepared for Ramirez to throw at him, though he wouldn’t reveal why.
“Ask him. It’s all good,” Torrealba said. “Every time I talk about stuff, I get fined or suspended.”
I’m not certain when was the last time I attended a game in which a player was charaged with deception, but it does vaguely sound like the kind of thing Christian Guzman’s employers have thought of once or twice.