HOUSTON -- Roy Oswalt received the backing of his teammates when it looked like Michael Barrett was heading toward the mound for an unfriendly visit. But in the clubhouse after Sunday's game, the Houston right-hander was hard-pressed to find someone who agreed with his point of view on the events that led to his ejection.
Oswalt did not understand why he was tossed without a warning after hitting Barrett with a pitch, while Kerry Wood received different treatment after committing what Oswalt viewed as the same crime.
Home plate umpire Bill Hohn tossed Oswalt in the third inning for plunking Barrett in the back, just after Aramis Ramirez connected with a three-run homer that gave the Cubs a 5-1 lead.
But Wood was charged with three hit-by-pitches on the day. He grazed Jason Lane's jersey in the second frame following Mike Lamb's solo homer and he hit Carlos Beltran on the foot in the third, but it wasn't until he plunked Jeff Kent in the fifth that Hohn finally tossed the Cubs starter.
Roy Oswalt / P
Born: 08/29/77
Height: 6'0"
Weight: 185 lbs
Bats: R / Throws: R
"There wasn't even a warning," Oswalt said of his ejection. "Our guy (Lane) gets hit right after a home run on the next pitch and there's no warning to him. I throw and hit a guy too, and I don't get a warning. I get thrown out."
But it's up to the umpire to decide if the plunkings were intentional, and it was seemingly Hohn's opinion that only Oswalt hit anyone on purpose. Jeff Bagwell agreed.
"(Oswalt) gave up a three-run homer and then hit a guy in the back," he said. "That's why he got thrown out. Kerry hit
(Beltran) with a slider. He hit him with a slider on the foot. I'm sure he wasn't trying to hit Jeff Kent either."
Was Hohn too quick to eject Oswalt?
"I would have done the same thing," Bagwell said. "I would have thrown Roy out. It was as blatant as it could be.
That's it."
Barrett had words with Oswalt after the plunking, prompting both benches and bullpens to clear, although no punches were thrown.
"In that situation I'm just trying to keep my cool," Barrett said. "There's a lot of kids in the stands and I'm not trying to do anything crazy. I was a little disappointed in Roy, I think he's a little bit better than that. Obviously he did what he felt like he needed to do."
Manager Phil Garner had a long discussion with Hohn before the manager called for Kirk Bullinger to replace Oswalt on the mound.
"There wasn't even a warning. Our guy (Lane) gets hit right after a home run on the next pitch and there's no warning to him. I throw and hit a guy too, and I don't get a warning. I get thrown out."
-- Roy Oswalt
Garner said he wanted to make sure that Hohn issued a warning to both benches, and the home plate umpire assured the skipper that he had.
"My contention is if you deemed that Oswalt's throwing at (Barrett), then you have to deem that Wood threw at Lane," Garner said. "(Hohn's) comment was that it just nicked (Lane's) jersey. I said, 'Well, our guy got out of the way and the Cub guy didn't.'
"I argued my point. I said, 'Look, (Oswalt) just tried to get a ball inside to a guy and he didn't get it inside. He's going to make this one go inside and instead of missing a foot out over the plate, he missed a foot in.'
"The umpire's got to read somebody's mind, that's what it boils down to. It's a difficult thing to do. I don't necessarily blame the umpire. It's just what the rule is. It's a tough rule to live by."
Oswalt did not deny that he was trying to pitch inside to Barrett.
"I was trying to move him back, for sure. A lot of guys were getting pretty good swings, so I was going to throw in a little bit. ... I wasn't going to let him just move and not move his feet. I was going to try to get him off his feet. He turned into it."
The overworked bullpen combined to yield six more runs over 6 1/3 innings after the Astros lost their ace starter. With 39 games remaining and a healthy deficit in the Wild Card standings, the Astros really cannot afford to lose games that one of their two reliable starters pitch.
"We needed him," Bagwell said. "We need him to pitch for us. He's our Opening Day pitcher, as good as anyone in the league. We need him to be pitching.
"You can't talk about Kerry Wood. We have to look at our own situation. You can say whatever you want, but we needed Roy to pitch for us today."
Alyson Footer is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
News
Roy Oswalt / P
print this page