‘They got it wrong': Giants reveal what led to ejections after botched call, umpire's taunts
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Adrian Houser earned his first career ejection in the midst of the San Francisco Giants' outrage over Heliot Ramos' catwalk-deflected homer getting disallowed during Saturday's 5-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. Houser didn't really get his money's worth, though.
The Giants starter, who played with the Rays last year, said he didn't say any of the magic words that would earn an ejection - all he did was make the eye-pointing finger gesture to second-base umpire Vic Carapazza and then toward where the Tropicana Field catwalk is, as if to say, "You needed to be looking there."
"They got it wrong," Houser said of the call, which resulted in an out because Rays center fielder Cedric Mullins caught the ball. "All I was saying was, ‘That's on you, Vic, you've got to see that,' because he's the umpire out at second. Everybody knows - they've been here to the Trop, everybody knows the rules - it hits the catwalk and it's fair, it's a homer."
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An apparent home run hit by the Giants' Heliot Ramos instead was ruled an out, a call that set the tone in a game against the Rays as San Francisco lost its fifth consecutive game.
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Boom, home-plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt ejected Houser, along with director of pitching Frank Anderson, a most unlikely duo to get tossed.
"Well, it's two Oklahoma guys!" Houser said with a laugh.
The Giants remain miffed that Wendlestedt said, "Who do you think you are?" to Anderson and that the crew also mocked manager Tony Vitello and Anderson for their college background, with jabs about "rah-rah" and pompoms. The team is likely to bring up this behavior from the crew to the league when reports are filed about the incident.
Meanwhile, the Giants are certain Ramos' ball, which initially was listed on the Statcast measurements as 424 feet - a homer, was out, and some players had even heard from Rays players that they'd seen the ball hit the catwalk and plunge down, which was evident from Mullins' sudden dash in after heading to the wall.
"You could tell from their players' reactions, none of them reacted at all when we were stopping and saying, ‘Homer! ' A Gold Glove center fielder doesn't race up to the wall like he's going to try to rob a home run and then run 20 feet in, and we all saw the scoreboard flash 424," Houser said. "It was easy to tell that ball was totally smoked, then all of a sudden goes straight down."
Anderson declined comment, but his son, former A's starter Brett Anderson, chimed in with a light-hearted tweet: "Took me 12 years to get ejected from a MLB game … only took my dad 33 games."
Numerous Giants said Frank Anderson had told Carapazza he should have hustled out to the outfield to make the call. Carapazza appeared to jog a dozen feet or so toward left center for a view of the play.
Upcoming moves: The Giants will promote right-hander Trevor McDonald from Triple-A Sacramento to start Monday's game against the Padres, Vitello said. McDonald made four appearances with the Giants over the previous two seasons.
Given the Giants' recent stumble, other transitions loom. After Sunday's game, first baseman/DH Bryce Eldridge and Jesus Rodriguez were promoted from Triple-A Sacramento.
Who might go to open a roster spot? Jerar Encarnacion hasn't been used much and the outfielder hasn't been all that effective in his brief appearances, batting .176 with no homers or RBIs, one walk and eight strikeouts. Another outfielder, Will Brennan, is also little used, but he does give the Giants a left-handed bat off the bench.
(Infielder Christian Koss also is getting little time, but he's an excellent fielder, baserunner and the position-player pitcher, so he's going nowhere.)
The Giants are loathe to bring up a top prospect only to sit, so Eldridge figures to play, even though Rafael Devers is the first baseman and Casey Schmitt the DH.
Eldridge was hitting .333 with a .963 OPS at Sacramento, and the Giants are struggling to score. Rodriguez, who can play everywhere except shortstop and pitcher, was batting .330, and he can catch.
In addition, reliever Sam Hentges (shoulder-capsule surgery) is getting close to the end of his rehab assignment and could be added to the big-league roster this week. Entering Sunday, batters were hitting .091 off the lefty in his seven outings with the River Cats.
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This story was originally published May 3, 2026 at 7:12 PM.