Toronto Blue Jays confused, upset over series of 'surprising' ejections in loss to New York Yankees

The Blue Jays suffered a deflating loss Tuesday against the Yankees, but it was a series of umpire decisions earlier in the game that left Toronto players and coaches scratching their heads.

Blue Jays reliever Yimi Garcia, manager Charlie Montoyo and pitching coach Pete Walker all were ejected as part of a bizarre sequence during the sixth and seventh innings.

Two pitches after allowing a game-tying three-run home run to Giancarlo Stanton, Garcia hit Josh Donaldson in the upper left arm with a 94 mph fastball, prompting an angry response from the Yankees dugout. After a lengthy conference by the umpires, Garcia was ejected without a warning.

«There's no reason why anybody would try to hit anybody in a 3-3 game,» Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette said.

Garcia reacted furiously to his ejection and needed to be restrained by Montoyo and Toronto's coaching staff, who rushed onto the field seeking an explanation. Walker also was ejected during the altercation.

Crew chief Alfonso Marquez told a pool reporter that umpires «felt ejection was the way to go» because they deemed Garcia's actions intentional, based in part because of an earlier verbal exchange between Donaldson and Blue Jays catcher Tyler Heineman.

«Given all the situations up to that specific moment, we just deemed it intentional,» Marquez said in the pool report. «And when that happens, we have to eject or go warnings, but we felt ejection was the way to go.»

«I'm going to tell you exactly what they told me. The reason they thought that Yimi Garcia threw at Donaldson was because Heineman and Donaldson were yelling at each other in the fifth inning or something,» Montoyo said. «They decided that they thought we threw at Donaldson in a tie game after the home run on