TORONTO — Troy Tulowitzki is curious to hear from umpire John Hirschbeck why he was ejected from Monday night’s ALCS Game 3 against the Royals.
After Hirschbeck, the plate umpire, called Tulowitzki out on strikes to start the seventh, it was clear the Blue Jays shortstop didn’t like the call and admitted other pitches weren’t to his liking.
“I am walking out to the field, and he is looking at me,’’ Tulowitzki said of Hirschbeck. “I told him that wasn’t a strike and it was a quick trigger. Obviously, he was either holding on to something or something was going on. But I didn’t think what I did was going to eject me out of the game.’’
Tulowitzki seemed surprised because he believes Hirschbeck to be a solid umpire.
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“Obviously, you don’t want to get ejected right there,’’ said Tulowitzki who hit a three-run homer in the third inning. “It will be interesting to see what he has to say. He has been an umpire for a long time. He is a good one at that so I am surprised.’’
Ryan Goins spent Saturday taking the blame for the Blue Jays’ loss in Game 2 but said that he had erased that guilt long before helping his team win Game 3 with a two-run single and solo homer.
“Today [it] was probably the last thing in my mind,’’ the Blue Jays’ second baseman said. “Didn’t think about it.’’
John Gibbons said he didn’t feel a deep conversation with R.A. Dickey was necessary after the manager hooked his starting pitcher with a 7-1 lead in Game 4 of the ALDS against the Rangers one out away from qualifying for a victory.
“I don’t know if it was necessary,’’ said Gibbons, who called for ace David Price to follow Dickey. “I don’t think I ruined his career to be honest with you.’’
Tuesday night will be Dickey’s first outing since being denied that chance at a postseason victory.
“I don’t think he was overly sensitive about it. Maybe I am wrong,’’ Gibbons said. “We talked briefly. There has been so much going on I haven’t had a chance to sit down. He knows I am on his side. He may not have understood the move, a lot of people may not have. But the whole idea was Price is coming in, regardless, because he is up. So why take a chance of letting something develop. That’s all it came down to.
“I don’t sense any problem. It’s about the team winning, it’s not about the individual, really. That’s the key to a championship.’’
Royals Game 4 starter Chris Young visited the Hockey Hall of Fame Monday where four members of his wife Elizabeth Patrick’s family are enshrined. Rangers patriarch Lester Patrick is Elizabeth’s great-grandfather while former Rangers and Penguins GM Craig Patrick is her uncle.
“I took my wife and youngest son. It was a wonderful experience,’’ Young said. “It’s an amazing place, the tradition, the family history for her. She was able to take a picture next to the statue of her great-grandfather. She saw her grandfather’s name [Lynn Patrick] etched on the Stanley Cup.
Much has been made of the trade deadline deals made by the Blue Jays for Price, Tulowitzki and Ben Revere but according to Gibbons, somebody who was with the club from the first day of spring training has been just as meaningful.
“Without him we may not be in this spot,’’ Gibbons said of third baseman Josh Donaldson, an AL MVP candidate. “That’s probably an accurate statement I would think.’’
Donaldson hit a two-run homer and drove in another run with a single Monday night.
Dickey and Boston’s Steven Wright are the only two knuckleballers in the major leagues.
“He will be the guy that probably takes the baton from me when I leave, much like I took it from Tim (Wakefield) when he left,’’ Dickey said. “But the numbers are dwindling.’’
Like everybody else who has watched games on the new turf at Rogers Centre, Ned Yost noticed the effect it has on batted balls.
“The ball is just slower. Before you could drive balls into the gaps and it would go all the way to the wall,’’ Yost said. “You are going to have to charge a little bit harder to get to the ball.’’
