For one night, the new Stadium almost felt like the old one.
David Ortiz came charging out of the dugout at umpire Ron Kulpa after he was tossed from a 3-2 loss for losing his composure over a pair of controversial strike calls, nearly making contact with him behind home plate.
Yankees closer Andrew Miller painted the outside corner with a slider on 3-1, a pitch that an unsuspecting Brian McCann, who was expecting something different, was not able to catch. Ortiz turned around and complained about this, something most players would be ejected for, then struck out looking on 3-2 and grew angrier.
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“That was bad, bro,” Ortiz said afterward. “Have you seen Miller’s numbers? He don’t need no help. … Look at that whole entire at-bat. Everything was a ball.”
The pitch was indeed a strike, but the fact that McCann was crossed up didn’t make it look pretty.
“The 3-1 pitch, I had it coming through the zone. That’s why I called it a strike,” home plate umpire Ron Kulpa told a pool reporter. “McCann didn’t help me out. He took the ball down a little bit. But the pitch still came through the zone.”
Andrew Miller's pitches to David Ortiz in the 9th inning. pic.twitter.com/FAtgYq0CEC
— Yankeesource (@YankeeSource) May 7, 2016
As for the 3-2?
“I had it in the zone, right down the middle,” Kulpa said.
Said Red Sox manager John Farrell: “He’d need a hockey stick for the 3-2 pitch.”
Postgame quotes from home plate umpire Ron Kulpa pic.twitter.com/W9j05UEvir
— BP Bronx (@BPBronx) May 7, 2016
The 3-1 was a strike, there’s no doubt. But the fact that Kulpa granted it to Miller, who, by the way, threw a nasty slider that broke across the entire plate, was a bit surprising. But, as Miller noted, Boston had reached base on a pair of well-placed balls.
“They got an infield hit and a blooper,” he said. “What else do they want to go their way? They can’t have it all.”
As the strike calls were surprising, so, too, was the rekindling of the rivalry. On a slow, rainy night, an Aaron Hicks home run and a late threat from the Red Sox brought tension and energy to a fading narrative.
Lead photo: Adam Hunger / USA Today Sports