Valentine sets Red Sox record with sixth ejection of season
Regardless of how bad the Boston Red Sox's record gets before the season ends, embattled manager Bobby Valentine will always have a franchise record.
After reiterating that he intends to keep his job beyond this season, Valentine set an unwanted team record for ejections in a season by getting booted for the sixth time. The latest came in the eighth inning of Wednesday night's 5-4 loss to the New York Yankees when Valentine and outfielder Cody Ross were tossed for arguing a called third strike by plate umpire Alfonso Marquez.
Ross was called out on a low pitch that may have clipped the outside corner of the strike zone.
"Cody was really upset," Valentine said. "He should be upset. He's battling his butt off, representing the tying run, and he winds up getting called out. He was upset. He's trying. He's trying hard. I pulled both my hamstrings trying to keep Cody away from the umpire."
Valentine was ejected for continuing to protest from the dugout, at which point he walked out on the field to argue with Marquez. Third base coach Jerry Royster also was ejected from the dugout, leaving bench coach Tim Bogar to both manage and coach third base in the ninth inning.
The Red Sox lost for the 28th time in 39 games, missing a chance to win back-to-back games for the first time since Aug. 26-27. They returned to 15 games under .500, 16 1/2 games out of first place in the AL East.
"He's not quitting either," catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia said of Valentine. "He wants to win. He's taken a lot of scrutiny, he's taken a lot of bad publicity. He wants to win. He doesn't want to finish the season on a sour note either. A situation like that, where it didn't look like a strike -- I didn't look at it, but on deck, it didn't look like a strike -- it's frustrating."
