Yankees manager Joe Girardi was ejected from Friday night’s Red Sox-Yankees game, but it was his Red Sox counterpart who had the most pointed words for the umpires after the game.
Red Sox skipper John Farrell admitted after his team’s 4-1 loss in the Bronx that he wasn’t too happy with some of the calls made by home plate umpire Lance Barksdale with Jon Lester on the mound.
“I’ll be honest with you, I thought it was a very uneven strike zone [on Friday night],” Farrell said. “So I could understand if there was some frustration, but I don’t think it caused [Lester] to be affected.”
Lester didn’t seem to have as big of an issue with the calls afterward, as he went into detail about a conversation he had with the umpire during the game.
“That first inning with [Yankees outfielder Brett] Gardner up and [catcher David] Ross where he was catching the ball, I felt like they were pretty good pitches,” Lester said. “And you talk to Lance after the inning and he’s telling me no, they’re a couple of balls off, so my question to him was, ‘Were they close or just off?’ And he told me they were just off. That’s information as far as a visual you can see — I throw that same pitch, I know it’s off, you don’t have that reaction later in the game.’’
Ross was similarly diplomatic after the game after seeing his share of questionable calls from the same vantage point as Barksdale.
“Sometimes zones are big. Sometimes they’re small. Sometimes they’re up. Sometimes they’re down,” Ross said. “It’s a constant adjustment.”
