PHILADELPHIA — Kyle Schwarber was ejected in the ninth inning for arguing balls and strikes as frustrations boiled over in the Philadelphia Phillies‘ 1-0 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers Sunday night.
Schwarber struck out looking in the final frame, turned around from home plate umpire Angel Hernandez, slammed his bat to the batter’s box ground and tossed his helmet, ultimately ending up confronting Hernandez as the latter was ejecting the veteran slugger.
Phillies manager Joe Girardi eventually took over the argument — albeit in a more subdued manner — as an irate Schwarber walked back to the dugout.
Schwarber then took a few steps out from the dugout to scream “All night!” to the umpire, and “Both sides!,” essentially saying that neither the Phillies nor the Brewers were getting a fair shake of the calls.
“I’m not here to bury anyone, but it wasn’t very good,” Schwarber said in his postgame availability. “You wish … I don’t know how to really say it. It just wasn’t very good. Guys were doing a really good job tonight of not saying much. It just got to me to where I was going to stick up for some other guys.”
The Brewers saw some of the tendencies that set off Schwarber, as well.
“Everybody saw the game and everybody saw that he was at least consistent for both teams. I’m not gonna say he was good because he wasn’t, but at least he was consistent for both teams,” Brewers catcher Omar Narvaez said. “Sometimes you just gotta adjust and not leave the decision to the umpire.”
Through it all, Eric Lauer struck out a career-high 13 over six innings and Christian Yelich hit a sacrifice fly in the ninth as the Brewers escaped with the victory. Lauer and Aaron Nola took no-decisions in a pitchers’ duel that saw the starters combine for 22 strikeouts.
“It was a consistently big zone. It was just a little big in a lot of areas,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said after the win. “I think Schwarber said it was big on both sides. And there was bound to be somebody upset when it’s like that.”
The loss was Philadelphia’s fifth in the last seven games, and sealed a fourth straight series loss for Girardi’s new-look club after taking two of three from the Oakland Athletics to open the season.
The Brewers, meanwhile, won for the sixth time in the last seven games.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.