Pitchers usually wait for the manager to get to the mound before handing him the ball and heading to the dugout. Santiago left the mound well before Scioscia arrived and didn’t even break stride — or look at the manager — as he handed him the ball on the way to the dugout.
“Obviously, I kind of disrespected Sosh right there and walked off,” Santiago said. “That’s just me being a competitor. You want to be out there. I saw that right arm go up to the bullpen, and then it was like … I was just disappointed in myself.
“Nothing against him. I wasn’t mad at him at all. That’s almost childish right there, walking off on him. I apologized to him probably four times. I know I messed up. It had nothing to do with him. I know he’s doing his job.”
Santiago said he felt like he was “out there for like 10 minutes” after Scioscia signaled to the bullpen, and he called the manager’s trip to the mound “the longest walk ever.” Santiago said he didn’t realize what he had done until he looked down after handing Scioscia the ball.
“After I went past him, I was like, ‘Did I really walk off that far?’” Santiago said. “Because I looked down and I’m like, ‘I’m on the grass already, and he hasn’t gotten up to the mound. I’ve definitely got to hold my ground out there and hold the ball. That’s on me.”
—via Mike DiGiovanni of the LA Times
Not a good look, Hector. Perhaps you can try and retweet Scioscia to curry favor with him. That seems to have worked with all of the Angels fans. Worth a shot right? Lord knows nothing else you are doing on the mound is working.
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