Milwaukee Brewers: Did Counsell & Braun deserve ejections?

Saturday was frustrating for a lot of reasons in Milwaukee. But Milwaukee Brewers manager Craig Counsell and outfielder Ryan Braun let their frustrations boil over. Did they both deserved to get ejected

Manager Craig Counsell has only been ejected 14 times in 4 1/3 seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers. He doesn’t often lose his cool, but it’s impressive when he does. Ryan Braun has only been ejected six times in over 1,600 games with the Brewers. Did they deserve to hit the showers early on Saturday?

Who was tossed first

Braun was ejected in the fourth inning after arguing balls and strikes with home plate umpire Mike Estabrook. Counsell was tossed after the eighth inning for arguing about the strike zone.

What happened with Braun

Braun took an 0-1 pitch from Philadelphia Phillies starter Jake Arrieta. The ball appeared to be a few inches outside as it crossed the plate, but Estabrook called it a strike. Braun was clearly displeased with the call. After running the count to 1-2 Braun swung and missed at an outside pitch. It was clear that he felt the need to swing the bat to avoid another questionable called strike.

Braun turned his head as he walked back to the dugout, and Estabrook rung him up. It was unnecessary for the head turn after already voicing his displeasure, but the ejection wasn’t really called for. Unless Braun said a few ‘magic’ words, Estabrook overreacted with the ejection.

How about Counsell

The Milwaukee Brewers dugout had been chirping about Estabrook’s strike zone all game, and rightfully so. Estabrook must’ve had an early dinner reservation because he was calling pitches off the plate all day.

Lorenzo Cain grounded a 3-2 pitch to second for the final out of the inning. It’s important to note that the 3-1 pitch was a really questionable strike call. It was low and inside by more than a few inches.

Counsell came up to the dugout steps and complained. He was tossed by Estabrook on the spot, but that’s not where it got interesting. After Counsell got the heave ho, he chose to further articulate his point to Estabrook. After a few hand gestures to indicate how rough Counsell thought Estabrook’s strike zone was, the two got nose to nose and really jawed at each other. If Counsell wasn’t already tossed, his performance would have definitely earned an ejection.

Counsell did move to the dugout steps, and voiced his opinion. If he had stayed inside the dugout, he probably would have finished the game. He did have a spectacular back and forth post-ejection, so he would have been tossed. The initial tossing was slightly questionable, but understandable given where Counsell was standing.

The Milwaukee Brewers will wrap up the series with the Phillies on Sunday afternoon at 1:10 PM CST. Estabrook probably won’t be the home plate umpire.