With a hand over his mouth, Pete Walker stood on the mound talking directly to starting pitcher Alek Manoah.
Seconds later, he was thrown out of the game.
The Toronto pitching coach’s no-look ejection during Tuesday’s 9-1 loss to the Padres came from umpire Malachi Moore who came to the mound to listen in, and clearly didn’t like what he heard.
“I’ll let Pete speak to that, but we’re always gonna defend our guys,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said after the game, according to Yahoo Sports Canada’s Ethan Diamandas.
Manoah allowed two first inning runs and then walked the Padres’ Trent Grisham with two outs in the second before Walker came out to consult with him.
Walker and Schneider objected to a few calls in the first, namely a two-strike pitch thrown to Juan Soto that Moore called as a ball. Soto then hit a two-run homer.
While the specifics of the conversation could not be heard, it’s speculated Walker was saying something about Moore’s previous rulings.
“I don’t think anything Pete said would have gotten you kicked out of a 10-year-old travel ballpark,” Manoah said postgame, according to MLB.
“I don’t know what he said before. I don’t know what the history is there. I really don’t know. I just know that he was talking to me and said, ‘There were a couple calls that didn’t go our way. Don’t worry about that. Keep pitching. I’ll handle everything else.’ Next thing you know, he was tossed.”
Before the ejection, Moore had shot two warnings at the Blue Jays dugout.
Tuesday was Manoah’s second start since returning from his June minor league demotion, and he was pulled in the fourth inning after giving up two additional runs in the third.
It came after Manoah — an All-Star last season — had a promising return start against the Tigers last week, when he allowed one run over six innings and struck out six.
The disappointing Padres broke the Blue Jays’ four-game win streak while ending their own three-game win drought.
Tuesday’s loss was only the second game the Blue Jays have dropped in their past 10 contests as they sit third in the AL East and are currently slotted into the second AL Wild Card spot.
Toronto and San Diego have the second game of their three-game series on Wednesday night.