Blue Jays' Gausman rips umpire for 'premeditated' balk call

Toronto Blue Jays ace Kevin Gausman was less than pleased by the conduct of umpire Jeff Nelson during his start against the Baltimore Orioles on Monday.

Nelson, who manned second base during the first game of a doubleheader at Camden Yards, called a balk on Gausman in the fourth inning. The right-hander said postgame he felt Nelson entered the game intending to make that call.

"I just felt it was premeditated," Gausman told reporters, according to Sportsnet's Arden Zwelling. "They knew they were going to do it; they wanted to make an example of me. It's unfortunate it put me in a spot where I was 0-0 with the guy on second all of a sudden after a bloop hit. But made some good pitches to get out of it."

The call came in the fourth inning following Adley Rutschman's leadoff single. An irate Gausman had to be restrained by teammate Bo Bichette as he approached Nelson while screaming at him after the call.

Gausman appeared to be called for the balk because his front heel moved before throwing the pitch. He said umpires had previously warned him about potentially balking - usually while checking him for foreign substances between innings - but that apparently didn't happen Monday.

"Before I even threw the pitch, I heard him calling balk," Gausman said. "So that made me pretty mad."

He added: "I just felt like Jeff, for whatever reason, wanted to make that call and went into the game knowing that he was going to make that call. And that's unfortunate."

Gausman, 31, remained in the game following the incident, pitching 6 2/3 innings against his former team to lift Toronto to a 7-3 victory.