Jays must reel in their emotions as clashes with umpires continue: Farrell

Shortly after the Toronto Blue Jays appeared to encounter the first on-field fallout from Brett Lawrie’s helmet-throwing fit last week, manager John Farrell engaged in some public umpire diplomacy, delivering measured messages both to the men in black and his own boys in blue.

Lawrie looked to have a very good case to be angry after being dubiously called out for not retouching second base on his way back to first after a fly out in the eighth inning of Tuesday’s 8-5 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, a game that ended with a long stare down from home plate umpire Sam Holbrook.

But with the third baseman’s relationship with umpires, and perhaps that of the team’s as a whole too, apparently still in need of some fence-mending, Farrell sought to strike the right tone between placing responsibility on his players, while at the same time subtly asking for a fair shake.

“I will tell you this, it’s human nature to have seen the video of the recent incident up in Toronto and I can’t say whether he’s targeted in any way, I certainly would hope not,” said Farrell. “But at the same time, Brett’s a young player, he’s earning his stripes here in the major-leagues, and these are some of the things he’s learning along the way.”

The latest spat began when second base ump Rob Drake saw Lawrie lean toward third after a popup slide and then not retouch second afterwards. One replay suggested Lawrie didn’t lean at all, and if he had intended to head toward third, he would have had to skip around the bag to get there.

“The interpretation of the play is that his momentum continued to take him past second base towards third base,” said Farrell. “If in fact that was the case, without seeing video, he’s got to retouch second base on his way back to first base. The second base umpire saw him take his momentum past the bag and cut through the middle of the infield.”

Right or wrong, Farrell pulled Lawrie aside for a quick chat in the dugout afterwards because of the way the 22-year-old turned aggressively toward Drake. Base coaches Brian Butterfield and Torey Lovullo ran out to pull him back and Farrell emerged from the dugout to discuss things.

No harm was intended, but the Blue Jays fear perception may be reality right now.

“There’s no question he has to keep his emotions in check and what was interpreted was more body language than anything he said,” said Farrell. “(Lawrie) just asked for an explanation of what the play was, but when he made an aggressive move toward Rob Drake, the antenna certainly goes up and those are things that are discussed, reminded, and he is clearly in a learning curve right now with keeping things in check in between the lines.”

Playing just his second game since serving a four-game suspension for inadvertently hitting umpire Bill Miller with his bouncing helmet last week following a pair of questionable strike calls, Lawrie was frustrated by his inability to get an explanation from Drake.

“I didn’t know what happened, for me I didn’t go to third base, I slid in, popped up and went back. That was my only question,” he said.

The answer?

“Don’t argue with me,” said Lawrie. “I didn’t really get a chance to say anything, I just wanted to know what the play was. …

“I’m just wondering why I’m getting called out. If I don’t understand the reason I feel like I have the right to ask why. And I just didn’t get an answer tonight.”

The Blue Jays’ trouble with the umps didn’t start or end there.

In the fourth inning Lawrie’s foul liner struck first base umpire Andy Fletcher on the right arm and knocking him out of the game for a couple of innings while he got treatment.

Bad luck there.

More troubling was the last out of the ninth, when Yunel Escobar angrily argued a called third strike that ended the game, and needed to be escorted into the dugout. That led to the stink-eye from Holbrook, and reinforced the growing sense that umpires may have an issue with the Blue Jays and their antics.

“I would certainly hope it isn’t an issue but I do know one thing, if calls don’t go our way or if they’re questionable, we have to maintain our composure, we have to continue to execute when certain things inside the game don’t go in our favour,” said Farrell.

“Most importantly, I want out guys to be themselves and go out and play with the passion and energy that all possess, but as we talked to guys in spring training, it’s important to be yourself, but when it starts to take away from our team concept then we have to reel it back in.”

Like many of his post-game comments, that answer was intended for dual audiences, trying to perhaps prod two sides uneasy with one another to some common understanding.

Right now, however, that may be too much to ask.

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