Yankees' Anthony Rizzo frustrated after being ejected by home plate umpire

BALTIMORE – Anthony Rizzo took a first-pitch called strike in the eighth inning Thursday from righty Joey Krehbiel that looked out of the strike zone and, muttering a bit, stepped out of the box to collect his thoughts.

The second pitch came in also appeared out of the strike zone but was called a strike by plate umpire Manny Gonzalez, and Rizzo felt it was called “out of spite.”

Rizzo, who generally enjoyed a good reputation among umpires, would strike out swinging, and when he saw the next batter, Giancarlo Stanton, take a ball on the first pitch he saw that was enough for the first baseman.

Rizzo yelled that it was essentially “the same pitch” which Gonzalez called strikes on him, and Rizzo was quickly tossed.

“I’m leading off the inning, I have one of the best players in the world (Stanton) hitting behind me, I should be in a 2-0 count there,” said Rizzo, who was ejected for just the third time in his 12-year big-league career. “He clearly misses the first one. I just step out to reset, and then I feel like out of spite, he called the second one a strike just to prove that’s his strike zone. That’s where I get really frustrated just because, all right, you missed one, that’s fine. I have the utmost respect for these umpires. I feel like on this team, as professional as we all are as a unit, when someone turns around and mentions something, I don’t think I’ve seen one guy be wrong yet.”

Rizzo’s previous ejection came July 24, 2019 when he was with the Cubs, for whom he played 10 years before getting dealt to the Yankees at last year’s trade deadline. His only other ejection came June 1, 2014.

Rizzo, who doubled and scored in the first and singled and scored in the sixth, was missed. His spot in the order came back up in the ninth – Joey Gallo walked – and in the bottom half DJ LeMahieu, who shifted from third to first after the ejection, failed to scoop Josh Donaldson’s low throw to first on Austin Hays’ leadoff grounder (Donaldson was charged with an error). Lucas Luetge struck out Ramon Urias but Trey Mancini singled, then Anthony Santander sent everyone home with his walk-off three-run homer that gave the Orioles a 9-6 victory.

“The frustrating part is my spot comes back up, there’s a play defensively I think I clearly make,” said Rizzo, a four-time Gold Glover at first. “Because I said, ‘it’s the same pitch,’ I get ejected? That’s where I get really frustrated.”

Hicks’ troubles

Aaron Hicks went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, making the outfielder 4-for-48 (.083) with 18 strikeouts in the month of May. Hicks is hitting .196 with one homer and a .568 OPS in 34 games.

“I felt like today and maybe yesterday, a little bit of pressing going on and wanting it bad and feeling that a little bit,” Aaron Boone said. “Certainly, we’ve got to get him going a little bit.”

Stanton stays hot

Stanton went 2-for-2 with a homer – his 11th – a double and two walks Thursday, making him 28-for-75 (.373) with nine homers, 26 RBIs and 12 runs over his last 20 games.

“I’m on time, I’m picking up the ball well, staying inside the ball,” Stanton said. “Just taking advantage of mistakes. Have to keep it rolling.”