MILWAUKEE -- The Minnesota Twins' 4-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday took 2 hours, 50 minutes, but it could have been shorter. There was a five-minute delay when umpire Brian Runge decided to speed up the game.
Runge refused to grant Twins batter Brendan Harris a timeout in the eighth inning, then called him out on strikes when Guillermo Mota fired a slider past while Harris wasn't looking.
"That's wrong. That's just wrong," steamed Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, still angry a half-hour after being ejected by Runge for protesting the strikeout. "... That's embarrassing."
Harris was more bewildered than angry, wondering what he had done to become the new poster boy for baseball's play-faster edict.
"I can see certain things -- changing pitchers, [regulating] the amount of warm-ups between innings. Those are things that don't affect the game," Harris said. "But stepping out of the box?"
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Umpires have been instructed to keep games moving by breaking up conferences on the mound, signaling for relief pitchers as soon as a manager appears out of the dugout and keeping hitters from stepping out too often. Harris said he had been reminded of the new intent Saturday, when umpire Greg Gibson warned him that he could only call time out if he had something in his eye.
But Harris was leading off the top of the eighth, with the Twins trailing 3-2 at the time, a pivotal point in the game. That's a strange time for an umpire to make such an out-of-the-ordinary call, he said.
"I don't understand. You would think he would have a feel for the game and not try to impose his will," Harris said. "... I guess that 30 seconds it speeds the game up is worth taking the bat out of my hands."
Mota threw a fastball for a called strike and a slider that Harris tipped, getting ahead 0-2.
"Strike one, strike two, [and I said] 'Oh man, all right, give me a second, you know?' " Harris said. He stepped back a step, then stepped into the box again, but noticed Mota already standing like he was ready to pitch. So Harris said he stepped back again, afraid Mota would pitch before he could get ready.
"He comes up, comes set and he's ready to go. And I was like, 'I asked for time.' And nothing. [Runge] kind of stood up just a little bit, so I thought I had it."
But Runge didn't grant time, and while Harris leaned over and began to reset his feet in the batter's box, Mota wound up and fired. Harris was looking at the ground, and noticed catcher Jason Kendall lift up his glove. Harris assumed he was simply changing baseballs with Mota.
"But the way it popped in his glove," Harris said, "he's not changing the ball with an 85-mph slider."
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Nope. As Harris looked on in disbelief, Runge signaled strike three.
"I said, 'Why couldn't you give me time?' He said, 'I can't give you time all day,' " Harris recounted. "I said, 'Brian, I've seen five pitches all day and I've swung at three of them. We're in the eighth [inning] at an hour and 50 minutes -- has this game been dragging?' I'm like, 'How much faster do you want this game to go?' "
Gardenhire hesitated to join the argument at first, he said, because "I was shocked. I couldn't believe what I saw."
The manager was most upset that Runge allowed Mota to pitch while Harris was standing next to the plate, with his head down.
"The speed-up stuff, that's all good and fine, but if he gets hit in the head there with a pitch, not looking at it, what are we going to do then?" said Gardenhire, getting angrier as he spoke. "It's gonna lead to bad things. It's gonna lead to somebody getting hurt."
Runge told the manager he was only doing what he had been told.
" 'Call the league' -- that's what I was told out there," said Gardenhire, who eventually earned his second ejection of the season, and 38th of his career.
"I think everyone in baseball will see it," Gardenhire added. "... Where's the game going?"
