The Phillies were chasing a playoff spot while facing a Nationals team with nothing on the line. Roman Quinn came up trying to lay down a bunt but looked uncomfortable and couldn’t get it down, eventually falling behind with two strikes. After fouling off a couple more pitches, Quinn got frozen by a 69 mph changeup from Aníbal Sánchez for strike three. It was a borderline pitch, but good enough to get the call. Quinn didn’t like it and let the umpire hear about it. He said the pitch was down, and the ump warned him to stop talking or he’d be tossed. Quinn pushed it one more time and got ejected.
Joe Girardi came out to stick up for his player and questioned the call. The ump wasn’t having it and tossed Girardi too. The exchange got caught on hot mics, and Girardi’s response came off more frustrated than angry, telling the umpire to clean up his act because it was a big game. Aníbal Sánchez kept cruising and ended the inning. The Phillies didn’t do much after that, dropped a few games, then scraped together some wins. But the standout moment was the mix of frustration and humor in Girardi’s response after the ejection.