Arizona Bench Coach Ejected After Umpire Calls Quick Pitch Clock Violation
The Philadelphia Philies beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 4–1 on Sunday at Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies took command of the game in the sixth inning when they scored two runs on Arizona reliever Justin Martinez, who was only able to record one out.
Martinez was promptly pulled and replaced by Joe Mantiply, who was then promptly called for a pitch clock violation before he even threw his first pitch. Mantiply wasn't happy and neither was the dugout. Home plate umpire Ben May appeared to issue a quick warning and then tossed bench coach Jeff Banister who made sure to get his money's worth before he headed to the locker room.
Banister probably didn't deliver his message in the most effective way, but he probably had a point. The scorebug hadn't even come back on screen before May called Mantiply for the violation. It stands to reason he deserved a few extra seconds to get going, but maybe May was worried about keeping the pace of the game moving for the audience watching the game on Roku.
As noted during the broadcast, Banister did spend some time as a big league manager. In fact, he was the 2015 Manager of the Year with the Texas Rangers. During his time with Rangers he was thrown out of 16 games in four seasons. This was probably his first ejection as a bench coach.