Davis Martin's afternoon against the Reds went sideways fast, and it started with Stewart's bat. Stewart launched a 419-foot home run off Martin in the first inning, and by the time Stewart came back up in the third, things had already tilted toward chaos. Two pitches later, Martin was headed to the clubhouse.
The sequence itself is what got everyone's attention. Martin's first offering to Stewart in the third sailed all the way to the backstop, up and in. The next pitch didn't miss -- it clipped Stewart on the helmet. That's when plate umpire Alan Porter tossed Martin without so much as a warning, a rare in-game ejection that Jomboy Media caught on video.
Martin's back-to-back high-and-tight pitches to Stewart, and Porter's immediate ejection.
Stewart wasn't shy about letting Martin know how he felt. Cameras caught him holding the bat by the barrel, pointing the knob at the mound, and flashing two fingers to make the count of near-misses clear -- then he let Martin have it verbally, which Codify's clip captured in blunt terms.
Stewart, still holding his bat by the barrel, shouting at Martin and gesturing that it was the second pitch near his head.
Benches and bullpens emptied, though nothing beyond shoving and shouting broke out -- Eugenio Suarez reportedly got in Martin's face, telling him head-high pitches aren't something you shrug off. Umpire Porter didn't mince words afterward, saying the home run combined with "back-to-back pitches over his head and in the face" left him no choice. Martin, for his part, didn't fight the call: he admitted going up and in twice put Stewart in a dangerous spot and said he understood the ejection.
Whether Martin meant to send a message after getting taken deep or simply lost the zone is the debate that'll follow him -- and it's the kind of incident MLB tends to review regardless of intent, given the location near a hitter's head. Cincinnati closed things out with a 9-8 win, with Stewart reaching base four times and scoring four runs as part of a night where he, Suarez and Stephenson combined for all 9 Reds RBIs. For Martin, the bigger question now is whether the league tacks on a suspension for the second closeup pitch.