Nationals manager Dave Martinez absolutely lost his mind at home plate after getting ejected Thursday afternoon’s game.
The Washington skipper got into an altercation over balls and strikes with home plate umpire Doug Eddings during the 5-3 loss to the Diamondbacks.
The scene came to be when Arizona’s Carson Kelly took a first-pitch ball during his at-bat against Nationals starter Jake Irvin — not long after Washington’s CJ Abrams took a very similar-looking pitch as a called strike to end the previous inning.
Martinez, seemingly over with Eddings’ strike zone, traded barbs with the umpire from the dugout before he bounded toward the plate.
While turning away, Martinez said “Get it right. Get it f–king right.”
“OK, you’re done, ” Eddings responded. “You’re gonna cheap shot me?”
Martinez could’ve hit the showers, but instead, he gave the sparse crowd at Nationals Park a little extra something.
The manager stormed back out to the plate, first dusting it off and then kicking it before — while still going off on Eddings — he laid down on his stomach next to home plate and aggressively gestured with his hands how low the pitches that were deemed strikes were thrown.
It wasn’t the first time that Martinez blew up at an umpiring crew this month, as just last week, he went berserk over a game-ending decision against the Astros that the Nationals ended up on the losing side of.
He was so perturbed over the perceived missed call that he printed out photo evidence after the game and showed reporters how he felt the umpires got it wrong.
But Martinez’s performance on Thursday is one of the only things Nationals fans had to cheer about during the game.
The Nationals — now 28-46 — sit in last place in the National League East and are barely above the Rockies at the depths of the whole National League.
The poor performance is likely part of the reason for the spotty attendance at Thursday’s matinee.
Eddings made note of the small crowd on the hot mic.
“Remember, there’s not a lot of fans here, and I can hear everything you’re saying,” he told the Diamondbacks’ dugout as the team complained about a previous call.
The comment was picked up on the broadcast, and players were seen chuckling by home plate as the umpire took a jab at the home crowd.
Arizona had the last laugh in the win and now sits 3.0 games up in the National League West.
