Major League Baseball's chief baseball officer, Joe Torre, reached out to Brandon Belt of the San Francisco Giants on Friday to discuss the player's recent controversial comments about umpire Doug Eddings, manager Bruce Bochy told ESPN.
Earlier this week, Belt questioned Eddings' integrity after the umpire called him out on strikes to end a game Wednesday. Belt suggested Eddings purposely made bad calls to speed up the end of a game in which the Giants lost to the Cincinnati Reds 6-3.
"It's tough because you hope an umpire doesn't affect the game like that," Belt told reporters, via San Francisco's KPIX 5.
"But he did, and you're not sure if it was on purpose either. I've heard the guy multiple times say that, or insinuate, that he's trying to get through the game fast, and then he makes calls like that, that I can't imagine he really thought was a strike. You gotta wonder."
Bochy went on to say the Giants don't expect Belt to face any further action from MLB for what was said.
The skipper himself was ejected from a game Thursday by umpire Chris Segal for arguing a strike call, and he provided his own comments about the Giants' recent bad luck with officials.
"You're going to have times during the year where it's frustrating," Bochy explained. "With what's happened the last couple days, it's part of the game to deal with. They're human. It is frustrating."
