Richard Bleier entered the game for Miami trying to protect a 3-2 lead against Washington. Things unraveled fast. With two outs, a soft blooper landed in front of the left fielder, tying the game. Bleier looked frustrated, and the situation went downhill from there. On the next at-bat, a pitch hit the batter on the arm. Bleier thought it was a swing, but the ump didn’t call it. He appealed to the first base umpire, who stuck with the no-swing call. The batter was in pain, saying the ball hit him before he even started to swing.
Bleier lost it. Don Mattingly came out to pull him, and Bleier unloaded as he walked off the mound. He yelled at the umps, insisting it was a full swing, and dropped a middle finger on his way out. Miami’s coaching staff tried to calm things down, but Bleier was too fired up. After getting ejected, he kept ranting about how bad the call was. Replays showed the batter hadn’t swung, backing up the ump’s decision. But Bleier had already blown the lead and left the go-ahead runners on base, which probably fueled his meltdown more than the call itself.