It looks like Tony Vitello can surpass Aaron Boone in ejections, with the San Francisco Giants manager climbing the ejection list. His temper flared again on Saturday against the New York Mets at Citi Field. While Aaron Boone remains at five ejections for the season, the rookie manager has pulled ahead with one more.
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It has been barely a week since Vitello was ejected over a disputed call. This time, though, an umpire ejected him for coming out of the dugout to argue the call in front of 30,046 people.
“Just wanted to know why it took the time it took to make the call. He clapped back in our dugout,” Vitello offered his explanation, as per SF Giants on NBCS on X. “Last week I was ejected and told I was ejected because I didn’t come out of the dugout and talk. So I walked out without any fire in me just to explain that I was coming out of our dugout and to calm the situation, and got thrown out for walking out of the dugout.”
The San Francisco Giants beat the New York Mets 9-5 on Saturday, but their manager couldn’t celebrate the win from the dugout after an incident in the second inning. The Giants were leading 1-0, with Turner Hill stepping in as the first batter of the inning.
He was hit on the right hand by a pitch from Mets starter Zac Thornton. Hill immediately turned around, dropped his bat and held his injured hand with his other hand. While everyone feared he might be injured, home plate umpire Jeremie Rehak ruled it a foul ball, saying the pitch had made contact with the bat.
The Giants used their manager’s challenge to try to overturn the call, and the replay showed that Hill had checked his swing when the ball struck his hand. But much to everyone’s surprise, the call on the field stood.
Tony Vitello was already frustrated that he had to use his time and challenge to get the right call on such a clear play, and when the challenge failed, he simply couldn’t believe it. However, he remained calm and stepped out to ask for an explanation.
“I’m not going to hear that! We’re not even going for it right away! Stop! Stop!” Rehak was heard yelling, but Vitello proceeded anyway and got tossed immediately.
Crew chief Dan Iassogna tried to explain to him that he couldn’t argue a call after a review, but the first-time manager simply refused to believe what had just happened.
“Why does it even have to be reviewed? Why should that be reviewed?” the broadcaster tried to interpret what Vitello was saying to the umpire. “It was obvious that it hit him in the hand. It didn’t hit the bat. How could you call that a foul ball? That’s question number one. Then how can you look at the replay and still call it a foul ball?”
However, none of it altered anything, and the Giants’ manager suffered his sixth ejection of the season. And what made it even stranger was that he had been tossed just about a week earlier.
Tony Vitello was tossed for not approaching the umpire
The Giants were facing the Arizona Diamondbacks, and a chopper from Nolan Arenado landed in foul territory, but third base umpire Alex MacKay called it a fair ball. Arizona was already leading 3-2, and the fair call awarded them a double. The Giants’ dugout was frustrated by an earlier ball call that cost them the lead.
The fair call particularly tested their patience as it was not reviewable, and a homer from Tim Tawa made it 6-2 in favor of the D’backs. Tony Vitello didn’t even try to hide his disappointment.
He extended his hands on either side of his body to gesture how far Arenado’s hit was. The manager’s action from inside the dugout was enough for Alan Porter to throw him out.
The weird part, you ask? Vitello revealed postgame that Porter “didn’t like that I didn’t go onto the field to argue it.”
He thought he would take the umpire’s suggestion seriously. So, he walked out of the dugout on Saturday to have a discussion with Iassogna.
But as it turned out, it became the very reason for his ejection, and it was the third time in 10 days that an umpire had thrown him out. The Giants are fourth in the NL West and 16.0 games behind in the Wild Card race. But the way their manager has stepped up every single time to have their back deserves some praise.