Ricky Speaks: A heartbreaking game ... and an Ump Show

"He turned around and heard Timmy talking, continued to keep his ears to the dugout instead of paying attention to the field."

The normally-upbeat Ricky Renteria had his fill of home plate umpire Angel Hernández tonight, furious that the crew chief tossed shortstop Tim Anderson from the game for chirping at him from the dugout.

The jefe struggled to remain sanguine.

"He turned around and heard Timmy talking, and continued to keep his ears to the dugout instead of paying attention to the field," Renteria said, plainly disgusted by the display. "You kinda saw, we were kinda disappointed with some of the calls that were occurring."

And at that, Renteria was tossed right along with Anderson in the ninth inning.

And after getting that off of his chest, the manager returned to his more upbeat self: "I thought today was actually a pretty good ballgame on both sides."

And starting pitcher Reynaldo López, the subject of some of Ricky's "harshest" criticism this season, pleased the manager with yet anothe solid effort. 

"He did throw the ball very, very well," Renteria said. "He got a little higher into his pitch count — not necessarily of his own making. You keep a team to one run, give us five innings, that's a good job. He’s looked really good."

As for the succession of events that led to a game-ending home run from José Ramírez, well, Ricky was only around for some of them.

"We were going to send [Alex] Colomé back out [for the 10th inning], but he had a back spasm and couldn’t go."

And as for the call for José Ruiz to relieve Matt Foster and face Ramírez, Ricky channeled his bench coach.

"Joe [McEwing] wanted to go to a power pitcher." 

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Ricky Renteria video courtesy of the Chicago White Sox.