Martin sounds off on umpires: 'You feel like you get cheated'

The Toronto Blue Jays' frustrations continued to boil over after a 2-1 loss to the Los Angeles Angels on Monday pushed them back to nine games under .500.

Toronto split the four-game set with Los Angeles, a series that saw the Blue Jays involved in numerous confrontations with the umpiring crew and a pair of ejections for manager John Gibbons on back-to-back nights.

At the heart of it all was Blue Jays catcher Russell Martin, who, due to the nature of his job, interacts with the home plate umpire more than anyone on the diamond. Following Monday's loss, the veteran backstop was none too pleased with some of the decisions Toby Basner made behind the plate.

"It's not just one call," Martin said, according to Shi Davidi of Sportsnet, addressing a full-count strike three he took in the top of the sixth. "In the previous inning, (Francisco) Liriano was on the mound, it seemed like he was getting squeezed a bit, so when my pitcher is throwing pitches on the plate getting called balls, and when I go hit I get a ball that's called a strike, that's frustrating.

"Things just keep adding up a little bit, so I let him know how much I disagreed and it's just frustrating when you're battling your butt off out there, trying to help the team win, and you feel like you get cheated a little bit. I know the umpire is probably trying his best effort out there, it's a tough gig, but like (Josh) Donaldson said, it's not the try league. We expect the umpires to get the calls right."

The Blue Jays took exception to a quick pitch called on Marcus Stroman on Sunday, and the club disagreed with a number of calls Monday.

In addition to Martin's displeasure with an inconsistent strike zone, the Blue Jays were unhappy when Basner called Devon Travis out for batter's interference in the seventh inning, which negated a stolen base by Chris Coghlan. Travis argued that it should have been backswing interference, which only would have counted as a strike.