Miami Marlins’ Jazz Chisholm Jr. on ‘frustrating’ ejection: ‘I was really being selfish’

The full-count pitch from New York Mets reliever Stephen Nogosek, a 95.5 mph four-seam fastball, just clipped the lower-outside corner of the strike zone against Miami Marlins center fielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. to lead off the seventh inning.

Chisholm, thinking the pitch was outside the strike zone, flipped his bat and prepared to take first base as he generally does when he draws a walk. Home plate umpire Jeff Nelson called Strike 3.

Chisholm turned back and, in his words, “was trying to be funny about it” and said a few words to Nelson. The umpire did not find it funny, especially after Chisholm threw his bat on a pair of three-ball counts in the third inning, both of which Nelson called strikes.

Nelson ejected Chisholm following the at-bat.

“I feel like the most frustrating part is that I feel like he things that he’s getting shown up [by the bat flip] when it’s something I’ve been doing from Day 1 in my career,” Chisholm said after the Marlins’ 7-2 win over the Mets to avoid a series sweep. “I’ve been bat flipping Ball 4s from Day 1 and he thiks he’s getting shown up, so obviously he thinks the game is about him.”

Chisholm admitted postgame he let the heat of the moment get to him and responded with his emotions.

“I was really being selfish,” Chisholm said. “I could have just walked past and not say a word. I was trying to be funny and say something and he got butthurt about it. When I was walking back, I didn’t get upset until he threw me out of the game. I was laughing at [the called strike], but when he threw me out, I turned around and was like ‘Why?’ Well, whatever.”

Chisholm said he apologized to his teammates afterward.

“My teammates have been helping me so much,” Chisholm said. “Luis [Arraez]. Bryan [De La Cruz]. [Jorge] Soler. [Jean] Segura. Everybody has been helping me. We’ve all been working in the cage together, trying to get back to where we’re at and try to get to midseason form as quickly as we can. And that’s why I feel like today I let my teammates down by not staying in the game.”

Marlins manager Skip Schumaker gave Chisholm a simple message afterward: Stay in the game.

“Let me get kicked out,” Schumaker said. “Let one of the coaches argue for you. It’s heat-of-the-moment type of stuff. I understand there’s a lot of emotions going on, but for us, we need our players to stay in the game. We’re the ones that if we get kicked out, no one notices, but if he gets kicked out, it can impact the game.”

Chisholm is one who isn’t afraid to speak his mind. After Miami’s 9-3 loss to the Mets on Friday to begin the three-game series, a loss that dropped Miami’s record to 3-5, he took to Twitter and asked “why is everyone panicking?”

“Come back when it’s game 40 that’s a quarter of the way or at least game 30,” Chisholm wrote in a subsequent tweet.”

“I see the fans panicking over my teammates and I know my teammates; they’re very talented,” Chisholm said Saturday. “Just trust us. We’re gonna make it out for you guys. Trust me, we’re gonna work hard every day. We’re gonna bust our asses out there every day. Just give us the benefit of the doubt that we’re gonna go out there and play the best that we can.”

On the field, Chisholm is hitting .235 with a .738 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, two home runs, three RBI and four runs scored. He went 2 for 4 on Sunday with a pair of stolen bases and two runs scored before the ejection. Garrett Hampson replaced Chisholm in center field for the final three innings.