Texas Rangers manager Skip Schumaker knew he was right. The rest of the Rangers dugout knew he was right. The home viewing audience knew he was right.
It hardly mattered. He was ejected in the middle of the seventh inning anyway for arguing balls and strikes on a called third strike to infielder Nicky Lopez at a critical moment of the Rangers' eventual 7-3 loss to the Houston Astros .
The Statcast graphic was clear. The pitch to Lopez was low. But the Rangers couldn't challenge. They were out of them.
It was the perfect summary of a 1-5 road trip that saw the Rangers (55-57) fall out of first place in the AL West, 2.5 games being the Astros - 3.5 games behind if you're thinking about the fact that Houston owns the season tiebreaker over Texas.
Schumaker talked about the moment during his post-game interview with Rangers Sports Network's Laura Stickells.
"We had a couple of challenges that didn't go our way, so we didn't have any left," He said. "High-leverage moment right there with Joc Pederson on deck. I know it's tough. Todd [Tichenor, the home plate umpire] has been a really good umpire for a long time. But that moment is a big call, a crucial call that you just gotta get right."
The Rangers had tied the game on a leadoff home run by Brandon Nimmo . Then Texas got two baserunners on ahead of Lopez with two outs. He just needed to get on base. The final pitch of the at-bat, a slider, was clearly low of the strike zone per Statcast. But Tichenor rung him up.
No one realized at the time that hitting coach Justin Viele was thrown out of the game as well, but before Schumaker was. The argument contained some hilarity as both Schumaker and Tichenor stopped in the middle of it to take their hats off and stand at attention during "God Bless America."
Then the argument continued, with Schumaker getting ejected and taking off his hit to continue the argument for several more seconds before leaving the field.
"I had to state my case," he said, while understanding there was little that he could do about it.
Texas returns home to host the San Francisco Giants on Monday at Globe Life Field. It's not clear what happens with the trade deadline. But Schumaker's argument - and ejection - with nothing to show for it was the perfect summary for a week where the Rangers tumbled from first place and into ambiguity.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/mlb/rangers/onsi as Skip Schumaker's Ejection Perfect Summary of Rangers Ruinous Road Trip .
