Chris Sale Ejected Before Braves-Yankees Game

Chris Sale, the Atlanta Braves ace, faced ejection before making a pitch in Sunday’s game against the New York Yankees. This incident came a day after he was charged with a balk that allowed a run to score.

As the umpire crew entered and passed by the Braves’ dugout on the third base side, Sale began vocalizing his displeasure. Umpire Dan Merzel ejected him, leading to a brief dialogue with crew chief Dan Bellino near the dugout.

The previous day, during the fifth inning of a 5-4 loss, Merzel called a balk against Sale. Rookie Spencer Jones capitalized on this by scoring after hitting an RBI triple. In response, Sale loudly confronted Merzel, resulting in manager Walt Weiss taking over the argument, who was also ejected.

Sale’s balk was due to failing to declare pitching from the windup, Bellino explained to a pool reporter. He noted that Sale had declared his intent when striking out José Caballero, but not prior to Austin Wells’s at-bat.

This was Sale’s fourth career ejection, the last occurring on August 3, 2019. At the time, while pitching for Boston, he was ejected by Mike Estabrook for disputing ball and strike calls during a game at Yankee Stadium.

In Saturday’s game, Sale gave up three runs and five hits over six innings, marking his first loss since June 28. The veteran left-hander is now 12-7 with a 2.20 ERA across 21 starts in his third season with the Braves.