Gibbons ejected for arguing call on fly ball

NEW YORK -- Blue Jays manager John Gibbons and left-hander Mark Buehrle were both ejected for arguing a disputed call on a fly ball hit to Rajai Davis during the fifth inning of Thursday afternoon's game against the Yankees.

The play in question came with the bases loaded and one out. Former Blue Jays outfielder Vernon Wells hit a sinking line drive to center field that Davis charged and made a sliding attempt to grab.

Replays would later show that Davis did come up with the ball, but first-base umpire Scott Barry said the veteran trapped it and did not make a clean catch. Gibbons came out to argue when the play eventually came to an end and got tossed, his fifth ejection of the season, while Buehrle soon joined him after being thrown out for arguing from the dugout.

"I thought he caught it and [the replays] proved that he did catch it," Gibbons said. "He ruled it a trap, we should have at least been out of the inning. The run would have scored anyways because [Eduardo Nunez] tagged up but we should have been out of the inning."

The play seemed to cause mass confusion on the field in the ensuing seconds as the Yankees' baserunners seemed uncertain what to do next. Nunez did tag and score, but catcher Chris Stewart thought the ball was caught and got stuck on the basepaths.

Stewart should have advanced to third but instead went back to second, where he was tagged out by Toronto's Munenori Kawasaki. Davis, who was slow to get up after diving on the ground, assumed the play had been called a catch and simply tossed the ball back into the infield to get Stewart after Nunez had already scored.

The play should have resulted in an inning-ending double play, with the run still scoring, but instead was officially ruled as a fielder's choice.

"I was just throwing the ball back into second, I figured we had a double play," Davis said. "It didn't work out like that, so unfortunately the inning continued ... I made that catch."

Toronto did get out of the inning during the next at-bat when Robinson Cano grounded out.

It marked the second consecutive day the Blue Jays dealt with ejections, as Jose Reyes was tossed for arguing a called third strike with home-plate umpire Ted Barrett on Wednesday night.

Barrett, who is also the crew chief, spoke to a pool reporter after the game and admitted a mistake had been made. He confirmed the belief on the field was that the ball had been trapped, but after watching the replays, he wasn't so sure.

"We looked at the replay and it looked to us like it bounced, but probably inside his glove," Barrett said. "So on replay, probably would have been ruled a catch."