Pitch clock issues were at the forefront of a game Saturday between the Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers and it led to one manager being told to hit the showers early.
The incident occurred in the sixth inning. Phillies manager Rob Thomson came out to argue after home plate umpire Roberto Ortiz didn’t reset the pitch clock when pitcher Aaron Nola requested a new baseball. The umpires believed Nola was stalling to get around the pitch clock rules.
Pitchers have 15 seconds to pitch with nobody on base and 20 seconds if there is a baserunner. There were 10 seconds left on the pitch clock after Nola was given a new baseball.
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"As the game went on, he started to throw more and more balls out where we felt he was trying to reset the clock, which is an attempt to circumvent the pitch-clock regulations," third base umpire Bill Miller, the crew chief, told a pool reporter. "It’s up to the umpire’s judgment if any player, at any time, is attempting to circumvent the pitch clock regulations."
Miller added that Nola "never felt the ball until he took it out and wanted another one."
Thomson exploded after he came out of the dugout to address the ordeal.
"Part of the rule says you aren’t supposed to delay, but it doesn’t specifically talk about tossing baseballs out," Thomson said. "Baseballs are all different. They feel different in a pitcher’s hand. Sometimes they get slick. I don’t know how you can tell a pitcher is throwing away a baseball because he doesn’t feel it or is trying to stall unless you’re a mind reader."
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Nola suggested he was trying to do both – buy more time and that he felt like the ball was slick.
"I was feeling it and walking back to the mound," Nola said. "The clock had started. I wanted to throw the ball off to get an extra second. Guess they didn’t like that. Balls are slick. I need to rub them up. Sometimes they’re chalky, sometimes they’re slick, sometimes the seams are bigger than others, sometimes they’re smaller."
It was Thomson’s second ejection. He was tossed in May against the Colorado Rockies for arguing balls and strikes.
Los Angeles won the game 9-0. Nola lasted 6 1/3 innings and had seven strikeouts. But he allowed six runs on seven hits.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
