Red Sox's Walker Buehler ejected for appearing to tell ump missed call was 'right down the f---ing middle'

In looking at the box score for the Red Sox's 2-0 win over the Mets on Tuesday night, one will find that Red Sox starting pitcher Walker Buehler only worked 2⅓ innings. Generally speaking, in a circumstance like this, that could only mean injury or ejection. In Buehler's case, it was an ejection. And he got his money's worth.

It was a 1-0 pitch to Juan Soto with Francisco Lindor stealing second that home plate umpire Mike Estabrook pretty blatantly missed a strike call. He was likely thrown off by the setup of Red Sox catcher Carlos Narváez, but the bottom line is the call should have been a strike and instead was ruled a ball. It was a 0-0 game at the time with one of the most dangerous hitters at the plate, so one could easily understand Buehler's gripe.

And now, the main event. You get a good shot of Buehler below, and he appears to tell Estabrook the pitch was "right down the f---ing middle." He had some more choice words for the umpire. Take it away, lip readers.

If you're going to get tossed, this is the way to go. Leave nothing on the field. Boston manager Alex Cora was also ejected after Buehler got sent to the clubhouse early.

Crew chief Laz Diaz said the official ruling was that Buehler was ejected for leaving his position to argue balls and strikes.

"He can say stuff from the mound," Diaz said (via the Boston Herald). "But once he comes off the mound, he's leaving his position to argue balls and strikes. Once anybody leaves their position to argue balls and strikes, that's an immediate ejection."

For his part, Buehler after the game seemed to regret getting thrown out, notably because it put the bullpen in a tough spot.

"I've been in this league too long for that to happen," Buehler told reporters. "I think for me, personally, it's one of those things that, like, you're very conflicted, right? You feel very convicted in what I felt and saw, but at the same time this is a team game and something I kind of let get out of hand.

"Today's game is a story about the bullpen," he added. "Obviously I put them in a really tough spot off of a day that we asked a lot of them, a lot out of them [Monday]."

The Red Sox scored two in the fifth on homers from Narváez and Rafael Devers and that would be enough to collect the win for the Red Sox with Buehler and a whopping six relievers combining for the shutout.