Walker Buehler started the third inning for the Red Sox already annoyed with the strike zone. After not getting a call he wanted, things unraveled quickly. He hit Francisco Lindor with an 0-2 curveball that caught his foot. Buehler didn’t like the call, and his frustration grew. With Lindor on first, extra tension set in. Lindor stole second on the next pitch, which Buehler thought was a strike but was called a ball. The catcher had stood up early, the batter stood too, and the umpire appeared to lose the zone. Buehler stepped off the mound to argue. That was enough for umpire Mike Estabrook to toss him. Buehler argued the ump approached him first, not the other way around, but the crew chief said stepping off the mound to argue is grounds for ejection.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora stormed out immediately and got into it with Estabrook. He believed he should’ve had a chance to protect his pitcher before the ejection, saying the ump didn’t give enough warning. Both sides were heated, with plenty of swearing and finger-pointing. Cora got ejected too and ended up breaking the bullpen phone cover on his way out. Losing Buehler early hurt the Red Sox, who now had to lean heavily on their bullpen. That kind of early ejection burns arms in this game and possibly the next. This whole mess centered around a borderline call, emotions boiling over, and who crossed the line first. The ump said Buehler did. Buehler said it was Estabrook. Either way, both were fed up by the time it ended.