NEW YORK
Major League Baseball suspended umpire Fieldin Culbreth for two games Friday because he was in charge of the crew that allowed Astros manager Bo Porter to improperly switch relievers in the middle of an inning.
Culbreth and the rest of his crew – Brian O’Nora, Bill Welke and Adrian Johnson – also were fined an undisclosed amount after MLB admitted its umps goofed for the second consecutive day.
“The rule covering pitching changes was not applied correctly by the umpiring crew,” MLB said in a statement.
Culbreth and his crew worked the Padres-Rays game in Tampa, Fla., on Friday night. He told a pool reporter after the game that he takes “all the responsibility” for what happened.
As for the discipline?
“I look at it that baseball has high standards for their umpires, and I have high standards for myself, and I didn’t meet those standards (Thursday) night, so I am absolutely OK with everything,” he said.
The problem in Houston came a day after Angel Hernandez and his crew in Cleveland failed to reverse a clear-cut home run after looking at a video review. MLB executive vice president Joe Torre said the umpires made an “improper call.”
Hernandez was booed when the umpires were introduced Friday night before the Washington Nationals hosted the Chicago Cubs.
It’s recently been a rough run for umps. Crew chief Tom Hallion was fined earlier this month after getting into a verbal spat with Tampa Bay pitcher David Price.
The latest trouble occurred in the seventh inning at Minute Maid Park. And while baseball does have video replay for some hard-to-tell calls – and has talked for a couple of years about expanding its scope – there was no mistaking what umpires saw.
With two outs and the Astros up 5-3, Houston reliever Wesley Wright came in from the bullpen and threw several warmup pitches from the mound. Porter, a first-year manager, then ran onto the field to stop him and brought in another reliever, Hector Ambriz.
Angels manager Mike Scioscia argued, correctly contending Wright was required to pitch to at least one batter. But the umpires permitted Ambriz to stay in, and Scioscia put the game under protest – it became moot when the Angels rallied to win 6-5.
Scioscia wasn’t surprised by MLB’s stern ruling.
“One thing I have found is that in the course of, especially with Joe Torre and Major League Baseball, that I think there is accountability,” he said Friday in Chicago. “That might not always show its face, but I know behind the scenes it’s there, and this is one example.”
Pinch-hitter Luis Jimenez was on deck when Wright entered. Once Ambriz took over, Scott Cousins came up as a pinch-hitter.
On Friday, Porter was upset that he caused the problem.
“Personally, I want to apologize to their whole crew for putting them in that position,” he said. “It’s unfortunate for the game of baseball.”
A day later, Culbreth tried to explain what happened.
“We just got to cross-sectioning different rules within the changing of a pitcher and just had a hard time getting back on track from that,” he said. “We got confused.”
Porter said he spoke with Culbreth after the game and apologized to him when he realized he was wrong. But he still wanted to make a public apology.
“There are some repercussions, and again as I sit here (Friday), it’s more that I feel sorry for the crew chief and the crew for having to wear what it is that happened (Thursday) night,” Porter said.
Culbreth said Porter’s mistake was not the problem.
“I look at it that the players and the managers, they go out and play the game, and it is our job, whether they are knowingly or unknowingly getting outside the boundaries to get them back in, and I fell short of keeping them inside those lines,” Culbreth said. “And that falls on me.”
Wright, one of the pitchers involved in the fiasco, thinks it’s unfortunate that Culbreth was suspended. He said when it happened, he figured he was going to have to stay in to face a batter.
“When they told me I was out of the game, I was just kind of like, ‘Maybe I don’t understand the rule,’” he said. “It was just one of those weird situations.”
A day earlier, a mistake in Cleveland caused a lot of commotion, too.
Adam Rosales and the Athletics were certain he’d hit a game-tying home run in the ninth inning against the Indians. Three umpires went to a video review and instead upheld the original call on the field that the ball didn’t clear the left-field wall.
Oakland manager Bob Melvin was ejected and later was contacted by MLB officials.
The mistake drew attention all over the majors. Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle said he’d never before seen an obvious miss despite replay.
“This is the first one where there definitely is a line drawn where you go, ‘Wow,’” he said.
AP Sports Writers Kristie Rieken and Fred Goodall contributed to this report.
Pitchers and the ump fined for Rays’ brouhaha
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Major League Baseball fined umpire Tom Hallion and Tampa Bay pitchers David Price, Jeremy Hellickson and Matt Moore for their dustup two weekends ago.
Each of the pitchers were fined $1,000. It was unknown how much Hallion was docked.
Hallion was the plate umpire and crew chief during a game April 28 at Chicago against the White Sox, and Price thought he missed a pitch. They exchanged words, and the AL Cy Young winner accused Hallion of directing an expletive at him while he walked off the field.
Hallion called Price a “liar” after the game.
Price, Hellickson and Moore later made comments about Hallion on Twitter. The pitchers were fined for violating MLB’s social media policy that forbids “displaying or transmitting content that questions the impartiality of or otherwise denigrates a major league umpire.”
Asked if he was happy the saga was over, Price said, “I guess so.”
In his next start in Denver, Price again was umpired by that same crew. He was asked whether or not he was concerned Hallion or anybody else from his crew would hold a grudge against him.
“Not at all,” Price said. “I don’t think umpires hold grudges. If something happened directly to that umpire, maybe. I don’t know. I don’t think so.”
The liar remark rankled Price.
“I’m not a liar. I still stand behind what I said,” Price said last week in the Coors Field clubhouse. “I don’t feel like that type of stuff should happen. It shouldn’t happen in any environment. Nobody that is an employee or a co-worker or your boss, that’s not the way you talk to people. It’s not the way you talk to anybody; I don’t care if you see a bum on the street.
“It’s the way I feel, the way I was raised. I feel like I was raised extremely well by my parents. I stand firm behind my beliefs.
“I didn’t want him to get fined; I didn’t want him to get suspended,” Price said. “I definitely didn’t want him to get fired, anything like that, because that doesn’t just affect him, but it affects his family.”
Rays manager Joe Maddon considered the matter closed. Now, he wants his ace to turn all his concentration toward the mound.
“It’s about moving on. It’s about focusing on your team, your team doing well and not really worrying about the other stuff,” Maddon said. “I’m sure Tommy feels pretty badly about it still. So, let’s just move on. I thought it got way too much traction, and I don’t want to add to it.”
