A’s Pitcher Defends Himself After SNY Announcers Accuse Him of Showing Up Teammates

Stephen Douglas | Aug 16, 2024

Oakland A’s pitcher Joey Estes reacts to a base hit. / SNY

The New York Mets beat the Oakland Athletics 9-1 at Citi Field on Wednesday. A's starting pitcher Joey Estes took the loss for Oakland, giving up seven hits and three runs in 5.1 innings of work. During the second inning Mark Vientos doubled home a run on a rocket that third baseman Darell Hernaiz couldn't handle.

As Jesse Winkler rounded third and headed home Estes threw up his arms in frustration. A few minutes later a frustrated Estes walked past Hernaiz in the dugout. This was not missed by the SNY booth. As the next inning started Estes was called out by Ron Darling for showing up his teammates.

"One thing I could not stand as a player and I can't stand in the booth is showing up your infielders"

Ron Darling shared his thoughts after Joey Estes showed up Darell Hernaiz missing Mark Vientos' line drive double pic.twitter.com/DXD4dYrOuc

— SNY (@SNYtv) August 14, 2024

"One thing I could not stand as a player," said Darling. "And I can't stand in the booth. Is one showing up your infielders. Everyone is trying to make a play. There's not one person in the history of the game that tried to make an error. And two when you give up a shot like that and it gets by you should never have that reaction and you should never rebuff him when you're coming into the dugout. You give him a slap on the fanny and say hey great try. We'll get 'em."

Darling and Gary Cohen then continued on for a minute about everything Estes did wrong.

After the game Estes spoke with the media and seemed genuinely hurt that anyone thought he was showing up his teammates.

"I would never show up my teammates."

Joey Estes clarifies his reaction after Darell Hernáiz was unable to knock down a line drive in the third inning pic.twitter.com/A8Nu6Sw09K

— A's on NBCS (@NBCSAthletics) August 15, 2024

"There's a thing going around right now and I would never show up my teammates," said Estes. "If you look at the clip I was reacting out of emotion and it was after the ball got way past Darell and had nothing to do with Darell. It was just me, if you look at the clip it's Alonso getting ready to round third base and I'm like throw the [bleep] ball in. Throw the ball in. I don't want that run to score. So that's the way I was reacting. I wasn't reacting towards Daz in left field. I wasn't reacting towards Darrell. That ball was hit 100-plus miles per hour past the third baseman. I don't expect him to make that play."

"And I would never show up any of my boys on this team," Estes continued. "And for people to think that and not know who I am as a person just kind of sucks, but yeah. Darell's been my boy. I went through the minor leagues with him. I'd never do that to him. And I'd never do that to any of my teammates here. I just want to clear that and get the right thing out there 'cuz the wrong narrative is out there."

Hearing Estes's side of the story, this sure seems like an overreaction from SNY's usually pitch perfect booth. Hopefully Darling and Estes can hash things out on Thursday before the A's head to Tampa for their next series.