There are plenty of things that can light a fire under a baseball team, and its leader being ejected from a game certainly is one.
But that wasn't the intent of Giants manager Bob Melvin on Sunday, who was tossed by umpires before a single pitch had been thrown in San Francisco's 3-2 win over the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field -- a much-needed victory which helped the team avoid a sweep to start the second half.
"Yeah, that's more of an in-game type of thing," Melvin told reporters after the game when asked if he believed an ejection could fire up his dugout. "But ... I didn't plan that. It wasn't choreographed. It just got -- I probably went too far."
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Melvin was ejected after he and bench coach Ryan Christenson approached home plate for the pregame lineup exchange. The Giants manager exchanged words with the umpire crew after taking issue with some calls during the first two games of the series in Colorado.
After the game, Melvin was much more measured in his approach.
San Francisco Giants
"The umpire has a hard job," Melvin told reporters. "I'm very aware of that. But like I said, I probably just said a little too much."
Seeing their manager go to bat for them might have inspired San Francisco's win, after Jorge Soler led things off with MLB's longest home run of the 2024 season so far and rookie Hayden Birdsong tossed a gem. But that theory might have been put to bed with Birdsong's postgame interview, where he told reporters he didn't even realize Melvin had been ejected.
Whatever the Giants' mindset was during Sunday's win, it worked. And it all started with Melvin's ejection -- however unintentional it was.
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