The umpires respond and Hughes' step back

First base umpire Paul Emmel, who ejected Joe Girardi tonight, told a pool reporter afterward that the ejection was warrented.

“He came out and said the call was wrong and I said it wasn’t," Emmel said. "And then he made a comment that violated the rules and he shouldn’t have made it, and so he got ejected.”

Asked what the comment was, Emmel said: "I can’t discuss the – we can’t discuss the details of it until it’s filed with the Commissioner.”

Girardi said he thought the ejection might have related to his last ejection, by this same crew, June 6 in Toronto. Then it was plate umpire Bruce Dreckman, behind the plate last night, ejecting him for arguing a checked swing third strike on Nick Swisher.

Crew chief Gary Darling said "absolutely not,” asked if last night had anything to do with Toronto.

As for Phil Hughes, hit bad outing all boiled down to a lack of command, he said.

“We got a lead early and to give that right up and pretty much take us out of the game was disappointing,” Hughes said. 

 Hughes, coming off a good start in Seattle before the break – when he allowed one run in seven innings – felt last night was “a step back” from where he needs to go.

“You have to find a way to try and get back to that,” Hughes said of the groove he was in much of the first half. “I know it’s there. I have to put some good outings together. Obviously the pressure is there because Andy’s down and we have to kind of battle through this. Tonight wasn’t a step in the right direction.”

And with that, we're all back tomorrow morning.