One round in ray starters Zach EflinThe 7 innings gem with PittsburghThe referee team asked him to remove a ring from his gloved hand during a meeting on the mound in the presence of Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash.
Eflin said other refereeing teams let him wear the ring, but he told him he would be sent off the field if the ring was not removed.
“This was the first team that really gave me a hard time taking off the ring,” Eflin said after he made it through seven official innings to lift Tampa Bay to first place. win 3-2 and three clean sweeps of the visiting Pirates on Thursday.
Eflin gets married in 2020 and has been wearing the ring since the start of the 2021 season. At first he put the ring in his pocket and then the necklace.
He insisted that most of the refereeing teams were “awesome” when he let go of his ring, but Thursday’s team instructed him and Cash before the start of the second half that he would have to remove the ring. ring on his gloved hand.
“This team of referees is a little bit different. They seem a bit tough,” Eflin said. “That’s part of it. I said, ‘If you’re going to kick me out of the game I’ll take it off,’ and that’s the last thing they came out and said to me on the mound.”
The discussion comes a day after Pittsburgh manager Derek Shelton was sent off for arguing over how the pitching clocks work at times, and then on Thursday, several Pirates expressed Dissatisfaction with referee Manny Gonzales’ strike zone. Seven of the Pirate’s 10 attacks against Eflin are known as the third attack.
Asked if he thought the referee was demeaning him, Shelton replied: “I hope not.”
“That’s not the way it should be,” Shelton added. “How should you call the game. All I know is that our players have a lot of questions about the pitch.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
