Milton Bradley And Last Nights Ejection

So, of course Milton Bradley got ejected last night. Don’t misunderstand what I’m about to write, because despite my ability to relate whole heartily to what happened to Milton his response to the situation was inappropriate. I don’t condone that every time you get upset you get in someone’s face and scream and become overly aggressive. It’s wrong. In case you just missed that his RESPONSE was wrong.

Now, let’s take a look at this at bats.

Obviously all pitches 1+2 which were called strikes and are awfully close either way. Then Bradley fouls off the potential strike three.

Now this last pitch held a lot of importance. Not only did Chone Figgins steal third base but had Mike Muchlinski not (wrongly) called Bradley out we would have had a runner at third with one out and a huge opportunity to score a run.

All we would have needed was for him to put the ball into the outfield and most likely Figgins would have scored. In the bottom of the 8th that’s big. With either League or Hernandez coming back out in the top of the 9th that all but gives us the game. But it was a bad call and it happens.

Bradley was upset about the call and what it cost not just him but the team. Don’t think for a second that this was all about Milton. This was a team thing and despite all the talk about Milton Bradley, he does care about his team and he wanted to give Felix a chance at winning this game.

You could point out that it wasn’t the end of the inning and that’s true. Miguel Olivo could have had a base hit (don’t laugh), and he has been very good in the past against left handed pitchers. But, we all felt that with Bradley getting struck out that it wasn’t going to happen.

I had hoped that maybe Olivo would get hit by a pitch or could some how work a walk (and I knew that wasn’t realistically going to happen) just so that Justin Smoak could get up. Knowing Smoak could do something. But the moment everyone realized that Bradley had struck out was just as emotionally deflating as Chone Figgins stolen base was inflating and even more so.

I know the fans around Seattle like to give Bradley a hard time for some of the things he does and there are certainly times, I’ll agree, that he deserves it. But give Milton a pass on this one guys. I don’t think there are many among us that wouldn’t have been upset had the we been in that situation.