Blue Jays’ John Schneider gets right in umpire’s face in wild ejection scene

· New York Post

Maybe this is the spark the Blue Jays need.

A fired-up John Schneider — who literally turned red in the face — got ejected on Tuesday night after arguing what he thought was an improper balk call against his starting pitcher.

In the top of the fifth inning with the Blue Jays trailing 2-0 to the Dodgers, starter Kevin Gausman was called for a balk, allowing Hyeseong Kim to advance from first base to second.

Schneider was immediately incensed and got in the face of home plate umpire Dan Merzel, who called the balk. Merzel promptly gave the Toronto skipper the heave-ho.

But that didn’t mean Schneider didn’t get his money’s worth, as he got right in the face of the ump for over 30 seconds of an impassioned argument.

In the short term, though, the ejection proved unfruitful; Los Angeles’ Alex Freeland brought in Kim with an RBI single during the very same at-bat.

It’s been a slow start to the year for the American League champions, who were 4-6 entering Tuesday night’s showdown, a 2025 World Series rematch.

John Schneider got in the face of a home plate umpire on Tuesday night. TNT
John Schneider was ejected for his tirade. TNT

Toronto started the new season with a series-opening sweep of the A’s but lost back-to-back series to the Rockies and White Sox, the latter a sweep on the South Side of Chicago.

Monday night proved to be another brutal day for the Blue Jays in a 14-2 loss to the Dodgers that saw World Series hero Miguel Vargas pitch the final inning. On top of the loss, starter Max Scherzer left his outing with a forearm issue. And, before Tuesday’s game, the Blue Jays announced starter Cody Ponce is likely out for the year after undergoing ACL surgery.

“I don’t want the woe is me, you know what I mean? It’s what can we do now?” Schneider told reporters Monday night. “Right now, not just our depth is being tested, our creativity is being tested as a group, like, how are we going to cover this, what are we going to do? It’s not always perfect, but we take a lot of pride in that and players do, too. The last five games have been really tough. But they’re in a good frame of mind.”