SAN FRANCISCO — A hotly contested game between the Bay Area teams got heated after Brandon Belt struck out in the bottom of the fourth inning Saturday night.
Belt grew frustrated as he battled during his third at-bat. Two strikes found the corners, much to Belt’s frustration, making the count 2-2. On the fifth pitch of the at-bat, Belt check-swung and turned away, inerring he did not fully swing as he prepared for the ensuing pitch.
But the third base umpire signaled that Belt struck out. A half-inning later, as the Giants took the field, Belt had words with the umpire. He progressively grew angrier, throwing his glove and getting face-to-face with the umpire before Giants players and Bruce Bochy stepped in to split it up.
Belt, who went 0-3 on the night, was promptly ejected. When the umpire tossed the Giants first baseman, he told Bochy, “I warned (Belt) five times.”
“He did warn him enough times,” Bochy said postgame. “He was saying ‘five times,’ but at some point you have to let it go. I know it’s frustrating when you don’t agree with a call. I think the whole at-bat he was frustrated with, and once he went out there and started arguing again, then you’re going to get thrown out. It can’t happen in a game like this. It can’t happen in a game like this. He’s a big part of this offense, and it changes the game a little bit. It took a left-handed bat off the bench.”
The Giants went on to lose, 4-3, off Mark Canha’s pinch-hit two-run homer in the seventh inning.