Frustrated Phillies lose Rob Thomson, Bryce Harper to ejection, then lose to Rockies, 4-0

The Phillies could not get on the board and could not contain their frustration against the Rockies.

Published May 14, 2023, 6:01 p.m. ET

DENVER — At first, it seemed like Sunday would be a normal, relatively unexciting game. Aaron Nola struggled in the first inning, mostly because of some defensive blunders from the Phillies infield, and the Rockies jumped to an early 2-0 lead. But in the top of the sixth, tensions began to mount en route to a 4-0 Phillies loss.

Nick Castellanos reached second base on a throwing error, to put a runner on with one out for Kyle Schwarber. Schwarber worked Kyle Freeland to a 3-2 count and took a sinker out of the zone. He thought it was ball four, but home plate umpire Ryan Wills called it a strike.

Schwarber argued with Wills, and then manager Rob Thomson got involved. He vehemently disputed the call and was ejected by Wills. It was the first time Thomson has been ejected since he took over as Phillies manager last year.

“Well, the pitch was up,” Thomson said, “and it changes the inning. If he walks there, it’s possible something gets going. I thought [home plate umpire] Ryan Wills was pretty good all day, up until that point, really. There wasn’t much from either side, chirping. But that changes the inning. That’s what I said to him. And protecting Schwarber — I didn’t want Schwarber thrown out.”

“I just told him, it felt like a similar pitch that was called a ball before,” Schwarber said. “I spoke my opinion on what I thought the call should have been. I didn’t want to cross any lines there. Obviously there was still a lot of game left to be played. Was it frustrating where we could have gotten first and second, with one out, J.T. coming up? Yeah, it’s frustrating. But as the game went on, more things went on. It is what it is.”

An inning later, Alec Bohm and Brandon Marsh both reached base with back-to-back to walks off Rockies reliever Jake Bird. Edmundo Sosa grounded into a double play, but it looked like Marsh was safe at second, because Harold Castro’s foot didn’t seem to touch the bag.

Bench coach Mike Calitri, who was serving as interim manager in Thomson’s absence, tried to challenge the calls at second and first, but the umpires wouldn’t let him. For a while, it looked as if Calitri might get ejected, too, after getting into a heated argument with second base umpire Jeff Nelson. But he stayed in the game.

“Mike [Calitri] went to the phone, and evidently, the plate umpire was looking at him, and from the phone [he gestured at him],” Thomson said. “Nobody moved. So, Kevin [Long gestured] at the umpires, and it’s really supposed to come from the manager. But you’ll see across the league where it comes from the bench coach at times. We saw it in Houston.

“And then, when Calitri went out and told them we wanted to challenge both sides of the call, at second base and at first base, the entire play, they said, even though you’re the manager, you can’t challenge from the phone. Which is the first time I’ve ever heard that.”

As Bird walked off the mound, he began slapping his glove and sticking his tongue out at the Phillies dugout. Bryce Harper charged out to confront him and his teammates followed. The bullpens emptied after that. Harper and Bird were both ejected from the game.

“I get emotion, I understand getting fired up after an inning and stuff like that, but once you make it about a team, or make it about yourself and the other team, that’s when I’ve got a problem with it,” Harper said. “You guys saw my reaction. I wasn’t very happy. He did what he did and after that he kind of flew away. Went into the dugout.

“He gestured ‘come on,’ but that was about it. I didn’t really see anything else. After that point I was just — I went out there just to go. J.T. [Realmuto] was right behind me, Taijuan [Walker] same thing. I appreciate my teammates for coming out with me and doing that. Heat of the moment, that kind of thing. But like I said, once we got out there, he kind of flew into the dugout and just went away. Nobody really saw him after he did what he did.”

Harper said he was confused as to why he was ejected, since no punches were thrown. He let Nelson know that he disputed the ejection.

“I just don’t understand the concept of throwing a guy after somebody is talking crap,” he said. “He got thrown out and I got thrown out for the instigation stuff, but like I said, it’s emotional, you kind of have to have some feel for the game. And I let Jeff know that. Sometimes you don’t understand those situations or that call, but it is what it is.”

Schwarber said if Bird had kept that moment to himself, and looked toward his own dugout as he did those gestures, the situation likely wouldn’t have escalated. But instead, Bird looked into the Phillies dugout.

“Do I think it’s acceptable? No,” Schwarber said. “Everyone gets emotional, things like that, but I don’t think that was emotion coming out. That was more directed at someone in our dugout. I didn’t like it.”

Officiating aside, it was a frustrating day for the Phillies. They made two errors in the field — a throwing error from Trea Turner in the first inning, and a fielding error from Sosa in the second inning. Nola had a solid day, inducing mostly weak contact, but he allowed two runs when Turner made his throwing error in the first.

In the fifth inning, Nola allowed an RBI single to Kris Bryant and a home run to Brenton Doyle, both on misplaced curveballs.

“We came out and really didn’t play one of our better games defensively in the first and second inning, and put a lot of pitches on Nola,” Thomson said. “I thought Nola was fantastic. He only gave up a couple of hard hits all day.”

In all, Nola allowed four earned runs on six hits with one walk and four strikeouts. The Phillies struck out 11 times against the Rockies’ pitching staff, managed just seven hits, and squandered every opportunity they had to score runs. They went 0-for-14 with runners in scoring position. They left 10 men on base. The loss ended a five-game Phillies winning streak.