Jered Weaver Messes With Kyle Seager, Loses

Weaver gave up a three-run homer to Jesus Montero and was ejected an inning later for plunking Seager in the Angels’ 3-1 loss the Mariners on Wednesday night. Seager apparently irked Weaver by calling a late timeout before Weaver got off his second pitch of the at-bat. (He’s not supposed to do that with MLB’s new pace-of-game rules, but it hasn’t been strictly enforced.) But what really got Weaver was Seager asking for time when he dug back in.

“It definitely escalated and he handled it the way he wanted to”, Seager said. Weaver became impatient, leading to the pair barking back and forth. Seager responded by yelling an expletive at Weaver, whose next pitch, an 83-mph fastball, hit Seager in the right arm.

Montero followed with a no-doubt drive to left for a three-run homer.

Weaver said he was bothered by the fact that Seager never stepped out of the box to call time and that he had started his delivery while Seager was still asking for time. “Just because he has his hand up doesn’t mean anything”. “But when you’ve got both feet planted and you’re looking at me, I assume you are ready to go”. “If you hit me there it was pretty obvious what was going to happen, he was going to be out of the game. I tried to make a pitch there, and it hit him”.

A two-out, three-run homer from Montero put the Mariners ahead 3-0 in the fourth. He hadn’t faced Weaver since 2012.

Seattle right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma (8-4) allowed one run and four hits and struck out a season-high nine in six strong innings to help the Mariners win for the 10th time in 15 games. Angels catcher Carlos Perez was thrown out at home trying to score on a grounder in the top of the third inning, then the Mariners found an unusual way to run out of a scoring chance in the bottom of that frame.

In Atlanta, David Price allowed one run in seven innings and Russell Martin hit a homer and drove in four runs as Toronto beat Shelby Miller and the Braves to protect its AL East division lead. “He started to pitch, and I kept my hand up, and I guess he didn’t particularly care for it”. “I don’t think it’s going to keep him out of the lineup”. Smith escaped by striking out Kole Calhoun and Mike Trout. A few players spilled on to the field in preparation for an altercation and manager Mike Scioscia came out of the dugout to protest the ejection, but no real confrontation occurred between the two teams.

Mariners: Both McClendon and Iwakuma said there should be no issues with the pitcher making his next start despite the sore back.