Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Kevin Gausman was still upset with second base umpire Jeff Nelson after the first game of Monday's doubleheader against the Baltimore Orioles and believes the balk call he received was "premeditated."
The incident occurred in the fourth inning after Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman reached first base on a single to centre field. Gausman, who is aware he tends to bounce his foot on the mound, was called for a balk as he delivered his first pitch to right fielder Anthony Santander.
A furious Gausman had to be restrained by shortstop Bo Bichette, and interim manager John Schneider took to the field to sort out the issue with Nelson.
"Just the fact that there’s no warning given, first chance a guy gets on first, you’re going to call something like that," Gausman told reporters after the game. "I kinda knew going into the game to be a little bit more aware of (bouncing my foot) and felt like I actually stopped on that pitch. If you actually look at the replay, I did stop. I just felt like Jeff, for whatever reason, wanted to make that call and went into the game knowing he was going to make that call. That’s unfortunate.
"Obviously, I was pretty heated. Bo kinda saved me and did a good job of reminding me like, ‘Hey, we’ve got two games today. It’s not just one game,’ so I really needed to stay in the game."
Gausman explained it's usually the umpire over at third base — not the one in the field — who talks to him about it, which is also why he was annoyed by Nelson's call.
"That’s kinda even moreso I just felt like it was premeditated," Gausman said. "They knew they were going to do it (and) wanted to make an example of me."
The 31-year-old Gausman said he has a pretty good relationship with most umpires and they'll usually give him a heads up or a warning first.
"For it to happen right away before I even threw the pitch, I heard him calling balk, that kinda made me pretty mad," Gausman said.
After cooler heads prevailed, Gausman settled down and struck out Santander, Ryan Mountcastle and Ramon Urias in order to leave Rutschman stranded on second base.
Gausman pitched 6.2 innings, giving up two runs on seven hits and recording six strikeouts, to improve to an 11-9 record as the Blue Jays were victorious 7-3.
