Let's Talk About Last Night

Okay, so an interesting game last night at Coveleski Stadium.  Let's pick things up in the top of the fifth...

Chris Jacobs plowed Ramon Castillo at the plate to score the 7th run of the night for the Loons.  Castillo was airborne to catch a high throw and defenseless and it appeared that Jacobs went out of his way to run him over when a simple slide would have easily scored the run.

I said last night that I felt it was a dirty play, but the intent was not to hurt Castillo.  It's a play that should not have happened, but Jacobs certainly did not want to injure Castillo or give him a concussion (which after the game I found out Castillo went to the hospital with concussion symptoms).

Fast forward to the seventh inning, and Chris Jacobs comes back to the plate.  Basically, everyone in the stadium knew that he was going to get hit.  I am not a big fan of intentionally hitting a batter, but in baseball, the players basically police themselves and Patrick Schuster had to stand up for his teammate.  Schuster hit Jacobs in the legs (and I applaud him for not going head hunting) and home plate umpire Mike Patterson immediately tossed Schuster.

Two things happened next that I felt escalated the situation.  First of all, Jacobs reacted like he couldn't believe they threw out him.  I think that he should have expected it because of his dirty play, dropped the bat, and run to first base.  Instead, he reacted aggessively which resulted in the benches emptying.

The next thing that happened is something I found out after the game.  Manager Mark Haley asked umpire Mike Patterson why Schuster was ejected (benches had not been warned).  Apparently, the umpire told Haley that Schuster mouthed-off after hitting Jacobs and that's why he got tossed.  However, that simply cannot be true because everyone saw Patterson eject Schuster immediately.  That's why Mark Haley argued to the point of being tossed -- he felt the umpire lied to him.

Here's hoping cooler heads prevail today.  I would imagine that Jacobs might get a day off.  By the way, I applaud Loons manager John Shoemaker for the way he handled everything.  I thought he showed a lot of class in showing concern for the injured Castillo and for the way he tried to calm Jacobs down.

Just my thoughts...your mileage may vary.