My Two Cents: Umpire Missed Call, But Rays' Taylor Walls Was Wrong, Too

HOUSTON, Texas — If Houston's Josh Hader isn't the nastiest closer in the game, I don't know who is. He throws hard, from a tough angle and seems like he's all arms. The hard-throwing left-hander has been tough to beat for years.

He's a problem, straight up. But when he throws a slider that's a good three or four inches below the strike zone, then it's called a strike, well, that borders on unfair.

Taylor Walls certainly thought so on Sunday.

It was the ninth inning and the Rays were losing 1-0. Home plate umpire Nic Lentz saw the pitch as a strike and called it as such. Walls didn't like it, and complained a little, telling Lentz the pitch was low. And then he complained a lot.

When things got heated, he adjusted his helmet and then — while staring right at Lentz — tapped the top of his helmet.

Old-school people might say 'who cares,' but that's a current signal now. Major League Baseball implemented ABS, the automated ball-strike challenge system that was used in spring training. If a batter — or pitcher — thinks an umpire missed a call, you just tap your head and ask for a review.

That was just a trial in the spring — though it's a system, in one way or another that's coming soon. Still, it's not in place now — more on that in a minute — so when Walls tapped his helmet, he was showing up Lentz.

For all the world to see.

And lest we forget, it's the umpire who has the final say in running a guy for arguing. He did just that, tossing Walls from the game. Walls went nuts, and it was great theatre.

Taylor Walls was ejected from the game after tapping his helmet.

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We have to remember in this moment that Lentz is the man in charge. It's the ninth inning of getaway day — and it's get away for umpires, too. He might have had a short fuse, to which he's entitled. He's in charge.

He also might have looked at Walls and said, ''dude, you're a .188 hitter.'' In either case, as the home plate umpire, he can do what he wants. He didn't feel like arguing, and he certainly wasn't going to let Walls show him up with the helmet tap.

Did Lentz miss the call? Of course he did. But he gets 95 percent of them right, and even had a perfect 100 percent score in a Rays game against Kansas City in late April. He's a decent umpire, and has been for a decade now.

He was wrong. But Walls was wrong, too. It's one thing to complain, it's another to show him up, and the helmet tap did just that. Should he have been tossed? Maybe not, but he left his fate in Lentz's hands — and he got shown the door.

And then Walls didn't really handle it very well in the postgame press conference. He said he didn't remember doing the helmet-tap gesture on purpose, but when you watch the video, it was very clear that he knew what he was doing.

Very clear.

“That's what he told me. 'You're not going to do that. You're not going to tap your helmet.' '' Walls told reporters. "And so at that point, like, I know that they think that's disrespectful. I watched the video, and I could see where he may have thought that.

“But I think, like, the context clues around it. I'm looking at him and my body language is saying, like, 'Dude, I didn't hear what you're saying.' I didn't say anything to him leading up to this. If I'm going to tap my helmet, I'm not going do it while I'm looking at you, asking you a question, trying to understand what you're telling me.”

Walls continued.

“I just remember going to get into the box, kind of adjusting my helmet, and then hearing him mouthing something. I was like, I think I said, 'Huh? What'd you say? I can't hear you,’” Walls said. “And at that point -- I have no recollection of it, but after seeing the video, it looks like I tapped my helmet. But it was totally unintentional, something I was not consciously aware of at all.

“So then he comes out, and he's like, 'We're not doing that. You're out of here,' and tosses me. … Just to be so on edge, thinking that somebody's just trying to be so disrespectful and show you up at that point, I think it was premature.”

The problem with Walls' thinking is that whether or not Lentz's decision was ''premature'' is irrelevant. He gave Lentz an out to toss him, and he did. Was it the difference between winning and losing? Probably not. The odds of Walls getting a hit off of Hader were remote anyway.

All of this could have been avoided, of course, if the ABS system was in place for regular-season games. There would have been a quick review that might have lasted 10 seconds at the most and the call would have been overturned to a ball. We all would have moved on, and Walls would have stepped back into the batter's box.

That's not how it works these days, though. Walls got tossed, and the Rays lost. Lentz was perfectly in his right to do it, and Walls opened the door for him with that gesture. You don't get to argue balls and strikes, especially if you do it the wrong way.

It's the price you pay.

I'm not in favor of eliminating the human element of umpires and going to robo-umps, but I do like the ABS challenge system very much. I think it worked well in the spring, and can work well going forward.

But for now, that's not how it works, and Walls knew that.

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