BOSTON — There were far too many quotes from the Orioles' 3-2 loss to the Boston Red Sox, especially ones pertaining to Ubaldo Jimenez's ejection, to get into the gamer, so here are some leftovers from postgame interviews.
Orioles manager Buck Showalter
On whether ejection was retaliation for Pablo Sandoval's slide on Jonathan Schoop:
"I guess that's what his point was. … That's the way we play, they play. You inspire both teams to play. It wasn't even a thought. Ubaldo, the first time up, you try to pitch guys in [when they] get their arms extended and are strong. We threw, I think, three fastballs. We tried to go in the first time up. It's kind of professionally a little embarrassing to see that type of thing have such an impact.
On the effect on the bullpen:
"It just puts our bullpen in a challenge for the rest of this road trip, or for a while, because we had to pitch people in situations where they shouldn't have been pitching. Darren [O'Day] and Brian [Matusz] were the only two guys who had the proper rest. It's unfortunate it impacted the game that much. Ubaldo had good stuff. You could tell he had the chance to pitch deeper in that game. But we didn't score very many runs. They did a good job pitching, also."
On how perplexing the ejection was:
"[To] everybody, I would think about 30, 40,000 people. … MLB will look at it and hopefully take some action to make sure it didn't happen again. ... It's sad that it did [impact the game]. My biggest thing is the bullpen and what we had to do there. Everybody aspires to play that game. We welcome it. We do it. We applaud people that do it. That's the way you want the game played. Every time somebody gets hit with a pitch, it's not intentional. And every time somebody slides hard, that's what you're supposed to do. Nobody gets mad. A lot of times you say, 'I know what it looks like,' but this time, no, not at all."
On whether team will have to make roster move Saturday:
"We're going to shake it around a bit. We wouldn't have, but now we'll have to look at it."
Right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez
On his reaction to ejection:
"I was shocked. You don't see that happen every day, without any warning, without any history with the player. First game of the series against Boston. There's no history, there's nothing. He's a good hitter, and I am trying to go inside. Especially against a left-handed hitter, you aren't trying to go down; you are trying to go up. I had three walks. It's not like I had perfect command of my fastball. I was shocked."
On the immediacy of the ejection:
"That's the thing: He didn't give me a chance to react or anything, without any warning. There's no history. I'm cool with Pablo outside of baseball. You can ask him. It's part of the game, trying to make pitches inside and seeing them get away. … If you think about something like that, at least give a warning. I mean, without history, there's no anything, and he threw me out of the game."
On whether home plate umpire Jordan Baker over-reacted:
"It wasn't in the head. If I hit him in the head, that's a thing [where] you might say, 'OK, it looked like it was on purpose.' But it was in the shoulder. You don't pitch left-handed hitters like Pablo down and in."
Crew chief Jerry Meals
On the reasoning for the ejection:
"First of all, Jordan felt that there was intent on the pitch, and the location of the pitch was a major factor, and what fueled that was Pablo running to second base earlier in the game. ... It looked as if, to Jordan, that the Orioles took exception to his hard slide."
On why no warnings were given:
"Because, again, after they showed the replay on the board, Jordan saw the Orioles dugout, and it seemed they reacted to the slide, and then Pablo's next at-bat, first pitch to him [was a] fastball in. It's close to the head, it was a dangerous pitch, so it's an automatic. You can give a warning if you prefer to, but he felt it's an ejection."
On his discussion with Showalter:
"What did I tell Buck? I just told Buck he's doing his job back there, get me a pitcher, and we just talked for a few minutes about different things. It was nothing in particular."
Catcher Caleb Joseph
On his reaction to the ejection:
"I was surprised, I was shocked. As soon as it hit him, my mind shifted straight to the next batter. I didn't think twice about it. And then the immediate reaction is to try to figure out why that happened. But I was shocked."
On how the ejection impacted the game:
"I don't think he had given up a hit, right? He pitched really well his first outing, and it looked like he was kind of on the same track this outing. It's not an excuse. We're not going to sit here and say that's the reason we lost, but when you've got to go to the bullpen that early, especially with a starter who's doing really well, it's unfortunate. But it's part of the game. I just think a lot of us were really shocked."
On whether the umpire was trying to take away the inside part of the plate:
"We're trying to keep guys safe, and I understand what they're trying to do. I had a pitch at my head last year, so we appreciate the safety aspect of it, but I think what was deemed on purpose just wasn't on purpose this time. It's just unfortunate."
On whether the Orioles were mad about Sandoval's slide:
"I know, probably, there's not one guy in this clubhouse who thought twice about that play. It was a slow-developing play, and he's trying to race to second to be safe. That's part of the game. They play it hard, and we play it hard. It could be [the inciting incident], but at the end of the day, I think we were all pretty surprised."