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Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Taylor Walls went nuts and had to repeatedly be physically restrained from going after an umpire after he was ejected from the game on Sunday. He had been tossed after tapping his helmet – that’s right, tapping his helmet – following a very bad strike call.
The incident occurred in the top of the ninth inning of the Rays’ game versus the Houston Astros. With one out, nobody on base and the Rays down 1-0 to Houston, Taylor Walls was getting his first at-bat of the game after entering it as a pinch-runner in the seventh inning.
The first pitch he saw from Houston Astros reliever Josh Hader appeared to be well out of the strike zone, but that didn’t stop umpire Nic Lentz from calling it a strike anyway.
Fox
Understandably, Taylor Walls disagreed with the strike call and appeared to utter a few words to the umpire as he stepped out of and then back into the batter’s box. As he was getting back into the batter’s box, Walls put his hand on his helmet, appearing to adjust it and tapping it with his palm a couple of times. That was the point that home plate umpire Nic Lentz called time, confronted Walls and tossed him from the game. One has to assume that Lentz took offense to the gesture made by Walls because it was similar in nature to the sign that was being used in Spring Training to challenge the call using the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) system.
Regardless of the reason, the Tampa Bay Rays shortstop then proceeded to lose his mind and had to be pulled away from Lentz multiple times by coaches and teammates in a fit of rage.
Taylor Walls was ejected from the game after tapping his helmet.
(via @SpaceCityHN) pic.twitter.com/zVuZP3bHFw
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) June 1, 2025
After the game, Taylor Walls defended himself. According to Rays reporter Ryan Bass, he explained, “I said that ball’s down, and then I heard the dugout kind of yapping at him a little bit, and I may have reiterated that ball’s way down, but past that, I didn’t say anything.
“After seeing the video, it looks like I tapped my helmet, but it was totally unintentional, something I was not consciously aware of at all. I’m looking right at him when I’m doing it. At that point, maybe I was frustrated with the strike call, but there was no sincerity of trying to show the guy up.”
Walls went on to add, “Just to be so on edge thinking that somebody’s just trying to be so disrespectful and show you up at that point, I think it was premature,” he said.
“I don’t really remember any time that I’ve been thrown out of a game since I’ve played baseball. I kind of want to apologize to him … if that’s what he thought that I did, but at the same time, like, after missing a call, you have to kind of understand the situation. You can’t just toss me for something that you’re not totally sure that I was doing.”
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