Just minutes after being ejected, Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine walked in for his postgame news conference. Stone-faced, Valentine tried to control his temper despite home umpire Al Porter's controversial call during Dustin Pedroia's ninth-inning at-bat.
The replay showed a ball that Porter called a strike. When Valentine was asked to elaborate on the inconsistency in the strike zone during Sunday's 4-3 loss — and the weekend in general — he finally let loose.
"We've got guys busting their butt, battling their butt off," he said. "It's not right. Good umpires had a real bad series this series — real bad series. And it went one way. There should be a review."
Before Pedroia's sequence, Valentine was already reaching a boiling point. Earlier in the inning, the skipper had grown frustrated with Porter's strike zone when Red Sox pitcher Alfredo Aceves was pitching.
During the ninth, Aceves was one strike away from retiring Nationals outfielder Roger Bernadina. Suddenly, his four-seamer was ruled a ball. Then, on the ensuing pitch, Bernadina blasted the go-ahead, RBI double that sealed the victory.
While Aceves didn't unload on the umpiring crew like Valentine, he was clearly unhappy.
"I can't complain, I can't complain," Aceves said, repeating himself. "It's been like that for all years. Unfortunately, they didn't call it a strike, but it's been like that for 10 years or more. We've got to come back, play against the Marlins and win the series."
Meanwhile, Adrian Gonzalez took a passive-aggressive approach to challenging the umpires. After finishing 0-for-4 in Sunday's loss, the Red Sox first baseman summed his sentiments with a sarcastic 13 words.
"The umps have been great all year, that's all I have to say," Gonzalez said, as he rose from his chair and walked away from reporters.
One by one, aggravation consumed the clubhouse. After dropping five of the six games during the home stand, the Red Sox have fallen below .500 for the first time since they were 23-24 on May 27.
Despite being swept, the Red Sox players' credited the Nationals' pitching staff — which included Stephen Strasburg, Gio Gonzalez and Jordan Zimmermann — for silencing the bats. But even so, they believed pitching wasn't the only factor in the series.
"We're trying to compete — every one is, both teams — and you don't want [the umps] to come into play and stuff like that," Pedroia said. "It's hard enough playing the game against good pitching and good players. It was pretty disappointing."
In the end, it resulted in Valentine's second ejection of the season.
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