CHICAGO — Home-plate umpire Chris Guccione ejected Texas Rangers designated hitter Joc Pederson in the second inning of Monday night’s 11-2 win over the Chicago White Sox at Rate Field. The ejection came five batters after Guccione denied Pederson’s challenge of a called third strike.
Pederson led off the inning and struck out looking. He asked for an automated ball-strike challenge, and Guccione turned it down. Texas batted around. Guccione ejected Pederson during Evan Carter’s at-bat, which ended the inning on a groundout.
“I denied the challenge, Joc basically went back to the dugout, he didn’t like it. That’s fine. Then we had the crew chief review of Corey Seager’s foul ball,” Guccione said in an account published by MLB.com. “As we were listening to that, I heard somebody from the dugout, the Texas dugout, say, ‘Hey Gucc.’ I looked and it was Joc. He was like, ‘Hey, it was down.’ I’m like, ‘My bad. I’m sorry. I’ll do better next time. I’m sorry.’”
Pederson said he was banging a bat on the bat rack and that nothing was directed at Guccione.
Chris Guccione On The Timing Of The Challenge
The two clubs combined for three ABS challenges in the second inning. Pederson’s was the only one denied in the frame.
“I’m not counting in my head ‘one, two,’” Guccione explained. “I guess the theory is two seconds. I’m not thinking that. But honestly, it was, I felt like it was delayed enough that I thought he was joking to begin with. I thought he was just being Joc, just kind of playing around. Unless it’s egregious, I’m not going to deny somebody a challenge.”
Skip Schumaker On The ABS Challenge Rule
Pederson entered Monday in an 0-for-24 stretch. Justin Foscue replaced him and doubled in the fifth inning, one of two two-out doubles that pushed the lead to 7-2.
“Guccione just said Pederson was too late,” Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said after the game. “It’s such a gray area with this rule. This one is another one where some umpires grant it, some umpires don’t, and that’s why some guys get frustrated at times with the delay and if it’s granted or not.”
Texas had already led 3-0 when Guccione made the ejection. Ezequiel Duran drove in the third run with a two-out infield hit with the bases loaded, off White Sox starter José Urquidy.
Tristan Peters answered in the bottom of the second with a two-out, two-run homer that cut the lead to 3-2. Texas went back up by three in the third on Corey Seager’s two-out, two-run double. Urquidy lasted three innings, giving up 5 runs and 6 hits, walking 4, hitting 2 batters, and striking out 2 while throwing 93 pitches.
Kumar Rocker worked 5 2/3 innings for Texas, allowing 5 hits, 2 runs, and 3 walks with 8 strikeouts. It was his first win since July 27.
Texas improved to 66-66. The Rangers had not held first place in the American League West by themselves since July 30. They are a half-game up on the idle Houston Astros.
Monday’s result evened the season series at two wins apiece. The White Sox fell to 68-63 and remain first in the American League Central. Rangers right-hander Jacob deGrom (9-8, 3.77 ERA) starts Tuesday against White Sox left-hander Anthony Kay (9-6, 3.96) at 7:40 p.m. CT.
