The San Francisco Giants suffered a 10-6 loss against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday. But beyond the final score, there was frustration over missed calls by the umpire. MLB’s regular-season grind offers little room to carry frustration from one game to another. Yet, something unusual took place at Oracle Park on Saturday.

Less than 24 hours after Tony Vitello and Logan Webb were ejected, another Giants coach found himself facing a similar fate. The reason? Senior advisor to the president of baseball operations Ron Wotus was trying to have a conversation regarding what happened the night before.

During the lineup card exchange on Saturday’s first doubleheader, Ron Wotus tried to strike up a conversation with crew chief Alan Porter at home plate. What initially started as a conversation later seemed to have aggravated a bit.

The ump tossed the coach even before the first pitch was thrown.

“I went up there, and I had asked Alan a few things about last night’s game,” Wotus explained the reason after the game.

“At one point, he didn’t want to discuss it anymore, and I did. I was ejected, so that’s what it was about.”

On Friday, the Giants entered the 3rd inning of the second game with a 2-1 lead against the D’backs. Rookie starter Blade Tidwell threw a 1-2 fastball to Lars Nootbaar. The RHP thought it was the third strike for the batter, but Porter, from behind the plate, had a different idea.

He called a ball. 

Giants catcher Andrew Knizner didn’t challenge it, and Nootbaar recorded a double on the next pitch. Corbin Carroll entered the batter’s box and hit a 2-run home run, helping Arizona take a 3-2 lead. But this was only the beginning. 

The frustration peaked when Nolan Arenado’s chopper landed in foul territory, but Alex MacKay at third base ruled it as fair.

The official said it went over the bag, and it resulted in a double. To make matters worse, this call wasn’t reviewable.

Tim Tawa walked in with runners on scoring positions. His 379-foot homer put the D’backs at 6-2. 

The SF dugout was definitely not happy.

Their first-time manager extended his hands to gesture at how far he believed Arenado’s double was a foul. Although he didn’t even step out first to argue the call, his actions were enough for Porter to eject him, marking his fifth career ejection and second in three days.

While Vitello came out of the dugout to have a few words with Porter, visibly agitated with the decision, pitcher Logan Webb also got tossed for the first time in his eight-year career.

Webb wasn’t even on the rotation on Friday. But he ran the length of the dugout so he could stand at the rail and yell at MacKay.

“I don’t think I get mad at umpires very often,” Webb shared after the game regarding his ejection by second-base ump Roberto Ortiz. “I thought that inning just didn’t need to happen. So, yeah, I was just letting my frustrations out, sticking up for my guys.” 

The gentleman pitcher also thought that because he was hot before their manager, his reaction made Porter even more mad that led to Vitello’s ejection.

“I wasn’t trying to make it personal, but it got personal real quick,” Vitello said after the game.

“You can’t change the past. I just want to win. I’d like to be involved in the dugout. If I make a mistake, then I’d rather sleep on that than not be involved in the party.”

He even acknowledged how he respected his boys for continuing to hustle after the game didn’t go their way. Right after those two calls on Friday, the D’Backs rallied for a 5-run inning, ultimately winning the game 10-6.

Even Tidwell appreciated both his manager and teammate.

“I thought it was awesome that my manager and one of my vets had my back. It was definitely cool to see. That was winning camaraderie. I think if we all get on the same page that way, we should have success as time goes.”

His team even briefly gave a competition to Arizona on Friday, closing to 6-5 in the fourth inning on Christian Koss’ first homer of the season. But that was the only major push

Vitello wanted to move on from it all with two more crucial games against the D’backs after that. 

But for Wotus, he is probably over the edge now, as he noted, “I don’t think [bench coach Jayce Tingler] will give me the card.”

Wotus suffered the first ejection (since 2011) for trying to discuss the incidents. And he wasn’t trying to argue a specific point from the previous game.

But on Saturday, there was hardly any significant action other than the ejection. Lars Nootbaar hit a grand slam in the seventh off reliever Ryan Walker for most of the scoring in the Arizona Diamondbacks’ 7-1 win.

This was the SF Giants’ 81st loss of the season, giving them five consecutive non-winning seasons for the first time in franchise history.

Yet, that cannot steal the focus from umpire errors.

Array of mistakes from MLB umpires

Officials often get it wrong. And missing a call or two is pretty commonplace in a major league game. But missing 21 calls?

According to Umpire Auditor, the umpiring crew had 21 missed calls in the second game between the Giants and Diamondbacks. 18 of them happened by the first 5 innings. 

Alan Porter, as The Athletic report suggests, had 9 of his 13 challenged calls overturned. And this tied the record for the second-highest number of overturned calls in a single MLB game. Obviously, none of the teams were happy with the umpiring.

But the frustration intensified for the San Francisco as the missed calls cost them a few crucial runs. 

And to top it off, Tony Vitello suffered his 5th ejection of the season. He is one shy of tying Don Kelly, the Pittsburgh Pirates manager. And The Athletic noted that in four of Vitello’s five ejections, the umpires had a quick fuse. 

This makes Wotus’ confrontation yet another development of an increasingly tense relationship between the Giants and the umpiring crew. 

But beyond that friction, SF has more to worry about.

They dropped the first game of the doubleheader 7-1 and then made a comeback with a 7-2 win. This tied the 4-game series at home. They are scheduled for a 7-game road trip up next.  

But they are 4th in the NL West with a 56-81 record. They are 25.5 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers atop the division. The Giants are 16.5 games behind the last Wild Card spot in the National League. 

Making the playoffs is next to impossible. But they would surely try to end the regular season on a high note.