Rendon, Nats lament quick ejection during latest loss

Anthony Rendon didn't say a word - "I don't think my mouth even opened to chew gum," the mild-mannered Nationals third baseman said - but it was his actions and not his words in the third inning of today's 3-2 loss to the Mets that caught plate umpire Marty Foster's ire.

When Foster saw Rendon step out of the batter's box after Steven Matz's 2-1 curveball up in the zone was called a strike, he told Rendon "we gotta play, you gotta get back in there," according to crew chief Joe West, via a pool reporter.

So when Rendon then tossed his bat in disgust after Foster punched him out on the next pitch - a fastball deemed to be both low and inside by MLB's official pitch tracking system - the umpire immediately ejected him from the game.

"When he called strike three, he threw the bat," West said. "You have some options there, and Marty felt that what he did was showing him up worse than an equipment violation would have been, and that's why he ejected him. You have to do something, or he loses all respect from the players. I understand that he could have (not done anything), but he chose that this was the penalty for what he did. So it was more involved than just strikeout, throwing equipment."

Rendon, who had been ejected only once before in a major league career that dates back to 2013, wasn't exactly sympathetic to Foster's dilemma.

"It's pretty frustrating, to say the least," Rendon said. "Especially when you're taking at-bats away from guys. And it's just terrible, because if you're a younger guy, you're trying to stay in the league. And when you have these strikeouts, the team doesn't look at called strikes on umpires. So they're immediately just going to say, 'You struck out five, six times in the last 10,' and they're going to send you down.

"But for umpires, it doesn't look like they're going to get sent down. They don't get cut. They don't get benched. They don't get sent down to Triple-A, whatever it might be. And we have video of all the called strikes and whatever pitch that it might be, ball or strike. And none of these balls are on the plate. We have video of overhead view, right behind the pitcher's mound, and it's just sad that there's no accountability for them."

Foster had barely finished giving Rendon the heave-ho before Davey Martinez burst from the dugout to speak his mind to the umpire. The rookie manager didn't hold back, earning his first career ejection, then tossing his cap to the ground and kicking dirt near the plate before storming off the field and up to his office, where he watched the final six innings of the Nationals' fourth consecutive loss.

"I don't criticize any umpires, I don't," Martinez said. "They're all really good in my eyes. I've been in this league a long time. I know most of them personally. That's beside the point. I'm going to protect the players. We're going to go out there and compete every day. But when I feel players need to be protected, I'll do that."

Maybe a little fire from the skipper was needed. It might not have prevented his team from erasing its 4-0 start over the course of the last four games, but it did prove to the clubhouse that the 53-year-old has everyone's back.

"That's what it's all about," said Bryce Harper, whose sixth-inning homer was one of the Nationals' few highlights on a cold, blustery day. "He went out there and he fights for his players, and we saw that right there. I was talking to my dad yesterday, and he's a manager that you want to fight for, you want to win for. Just the little things that he does that make you want to run through a wall for him and want to win ballgames for him. So that was huge seeing that and knowing he has our back, and we have his."

Clubhouse solidarity is all well and good, but right now the Nationals would also like to have a few more victories to their name. In losing four straight, they've been outscored 31-11. At the plate, they're struggling to string together rallies. Out of the bullpen, they're struggling to post zeroes on the scoreboard. And in the field, they're making just enough not-so-crisp plays to open the door for the opposition to take advantage.

"I preach all that stuff all the time, about doing the little things," Martinez said. "And this will turn around. One big hit here or there, and we explode. I'm proud of our team. They're playing til the last out, and that's all you can ask."