Oakland Athletics outfielder Coco Crisp has received a one-game suspension for intentionally throwing his bat in the direction of home plate umpire D.J. Reyburn, which struck Reyburn on the foot, after the conclusion of the top of the fifth inning of Thursday night’s game against the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park in Houston.
Joe Garagiola, Jr., Senior Vice President of Standards & On-Field Operations for Major League Baseball, made the announcement.
[RELATED: Crisp apologetic after bat toss that earned ejection]
Unless appealed, Crisp’s suspension will be served Friday night, when the A’s are to continue their series at Houston.
If Crisp elects to appeal, then the discipline issued to him will be held in abeyance until the process is complete.
Crisp disagreed with a called strike in the middle of an at-bat that inning against Astros starter Doug Fister. After striking out swinging to end the inning, Crisp tossed his bat in Reyburn’s direction on his way back to the dugout. Reyburn immediately gave him the thumb. A’s manager Bob Melvin went out to protest, saying that Crisp didn’t intend to throw the bat at Reyburn. After the A’s 3-1 victory, Crisp said he still didn’t know if his bat made contact with the umpire, and he added that Reyburn didn’t say that that was the reason for the ejection.
But he was apologetic, and he said he might apologize personally to Reyburn on Friday.
“My intentions definitely were not to hit him,” Crisp said. “Just me going back and looking at it, I was like … ‘That was way too close.’ That was pretty bad. … I didn’t mean for it to come out where it was gonna hit him. I was mad, so I was trying to say, ‘Well, you hit it’ type of thing, and it just went way too close.”
MLB Media Services contributed to this report.
