Vitello tossed after arguing pushing call, then Giants let key inning spiral

KANSAS CITY -- The bottom of the seventh inning in Wednesday's 5-4 loss to the Royals was one the Giants would like to forget, and it started with a controversial call that resulted in manager Tony Vitello’s third ejection of the season.

San Francisco was looking good with a 3-0 lead when Vinnie Pasquantino started the fateful inning with a double into the right-field corner off Giants starter Landen Roupp. The Giants felt Pasquantino appeared to come off the bag on his slide into second, and shortstop Willy Adames slapped a quick tag on him.

However, second-base umpire Mike Estabrook gave a pushing sign, indicating the play was dead because he felt Pasquantino had been pushed off the bag. Vitello came out to argue and, on his way back to the dugout, he was ejected by third-base umpire Lance Barrett.

The Royals erupted at that point, with Salvador Perez launching a two-run homer that trimmed the Giants’ lead to 3-2 and tied George Brett for the Royals’ all-time home run record with 317. Relievers Sam Hentges and Keaton Winn couldn’t stop the Royals’ rally until Kansas City had batted around, scored five and taken a 5-3 lead.

“I thought it was pretty obvious that he tripped,” Adames said. “I barely touched him. I don’t think that’s a call [the push] that you can judge. At first, he didn’t say anything. Then, when we wanted to challenge, it was, ‘You pushed him.’ I don’t know if he was out or safe.”

When Vitello was told he couldn’t challenge a push decision by the umpire, he asked that the crew get together and sort it out. But the decision stood without the aid of replay.

Vitello said his only comment as he was walking back to the dugout and got ejected was when he twice said, ‘It was a big call.’ And with that, Vitello was gone.

The Giants certainly had every opportunity to hold a three-run lead after the Vitello ejection, but the inning spiraled on them and they couldn’t stop Kansas City’s momentum.

Roupp, who pitched brilliantly through six shutout innings, immediately gave up the two-run homer to Perez following the ejection.

Roupp insisted he hadn’t been distracted by the ejection and the aftermath.

“I felt like I got right back to it,” Roupp said. “Salvy hadn’t looked good on sinkers at all today. I tried to get back in there and just left it over the plate a little bit and he put a good swing on it.”

Still, the Giants had a one-run lead when it went from bad to worse for San Francisco. Hentges came on and bunt defense became an issue for the third time in the series. Hentges fielded a bunt by Michael Massey and threw the ball past first. Kansas City had two on when Winn came into the game and surrendered an RBI single to Nick Loftin. Then Lane Thomas snapped a 3-3 tie with a two-run single for the winning margin. Casey Schmitt’s solo homer in the ninth was too little, too late.

The Giants lost all three games in the series by one run and finished their road trip 1-5.

Perhaps the overriding message of the trip was that the Giants have to find a way to not let a bad or unlucky moment snowball on them at a key juncture in the game.

“Just unlucky things, and it goes from there,” Roupp said. “We have to find a way to stop that.”