Yost ejected after arguing on Guthrie's behalf

KANSAS CITY -- Royals manager Ned Yost usually doesn't come out to chat with his pitchers unless he's taking them out of the game. He leaves consultations to pitching coach Dave Eiland.

In the sixth inning of Tuesday night's 3-0 loss, after the Astros had loaded the bases with two outs, there was no one warming up in the Royals' bullpen. But Yost walked to the mound and talked to pitcher Jeremy Guthrie and the infielders for a couple of minutes. That was long enough to draw home-plate umpire Kerwin Danley out to prompt Yost to move things along. He did.

At that moment, Yost turned and unloaded a few choice words to Danley, evidently about his ball-strike decisions during the evening. Seconds later, Danley was giving Yost the heave-ho.

"I got frustrated on some calls that I thought Jeremy should've got. It was mostly my fault," Yost said.

Yost stayed around to jaw, long enough to get his money's worth, before heading for the clubhouse with his second ejection of his season.

Guthrie said that when Yost came out, he seemed upset by a couple of Danley's calls during that inning:

"I said, 'Both were probably balls, but the second pitch, I thought was probably close so do what you think is right.' He said, 'I think all night you've been battling and I'm going to stand up for you and go from there.' I definitely appreciate that."