Giants’ Ha Gets Jump On Day Off
Shawn Estes said he’d never seen anything like it.
The Giants pitcher stood against the dugout guardrail, having what he termed a casual conversation with teammate Charlie Hayes in the top of the third inning of Wednesday’s game at Candlestick. Out of no where, Estes hears, “Charlie, you’re outta here.”
Plate umpire Gary Darling had just ejected Hayes after Russ Ortiz missed with a 2-2 pitch to Steve Woodard, Milwaukee’s starting pitcher.
“I actually started laughing,” Estes said. “Charlie never said a word. I didn’t know you could get thrown out of a game for having a conversation.”
It was just that kind of day for the Giants. After three miserable losses to the Brewers, capped by Wednesday’s 9-6 ugliness, they limped into Thursday’s day off awaiting the Dodgers’ arrival for a weekend series.
“This off day is right in time for us,” manager Dusty Baker said.
The Giants concluded a stretch of 13 straight games since their last day off June 10. Wednesday was also their 29th game in 30 days. Judging by recent results, it’s hard to argue the Giants didn’t take three days off in a row before Thursday.
“I can’t speak for anybody else, but I’m beat,” second baseman Jeff Kent said.
The logic sounds all well and good until you consider the Brewers were playing for the 39th time in 41 days. Had it not been for a rainout, Milwaukee would have had just one day off in that stretch. But the Brew Crew had plenty in its tank to unload a three-game sweep.
Guilty or not, maybe Hayes had the right idea. He maintained afterward he didn’t say anything to warrant an ejection. Baker supported Hayes’ claim.
“He just has no excuse. He has to be a professional about it,” Hayes said of Darling. “The sad thing about it is he loads up his stuff up and moves on to the next city and nothing is done about it.”
“It wasn’t Charlie, it was a fan in the stands,” Baker said. “After I told him (Darling) it wasn’t Charlie he said, ‘What do you want me to do now? I’ve already thrown him out.’ It was a bad mistake.”