Tony Vitello ejected as Giants fall apart in fifth straight loss, swept by Royals

KANSAS CITY — Tony Vitello was ejected one batter into the bottom of the seventh Wednesday afternoon, and everything began to fall apart soon thereafter.The Giants manager was upset about a ruling from second base umpire Mike Estabrook, who said Willy Adames had pushed Vinnie Pasquantino off the bag after he doubled to lead off the seventh.Adames was so animated in his disapproval that he could have been tossed, too.The Giants’ protests went nowhere, Pasquantino was ruled safe and he would trot home to score the Royals’ first run of an eventual 5-4 loss when Landen Roupp served up a home run to the next batter, Salvador Perez, who took a curtain call after tying the Royals’ franchise record with his 317th career blast.The seventh inning that began with the Giants leading 3-0 went from bad to worse after Sam Hentges took over following the homer.

Kansas City batted around and scored all five of its runs in the inning. Hentges fielded a bunt from the first batter he faced, threw it past Rafael Devers, into foul territory, and only recorded one out.Keaton Winn didn’t fare any better, walking a batter and serving up a pair of RBI singles in a death-by-a-thousand-cuts kind of inning.It’s possible it all would have played out differently had another call not gone against the Giants to begin the inning.

San Francisco was frustrated with the umpiring all series, particularly as it pertained to Adames, and it felt like it was building toward an ejection.What put them over the edge was the questionable ruling at second base.Adames emphatically argued that he merely maintained the tag on Pasquantino, who was already falling away from the bag.

Estabrook immediately ruled that Adames had pushed him off the base.The umpires huddled on the infield grass but didn’t review the call. Vitello had retreated back to the dugout but reemerged after Pasquantino was awarded second and was eventually ejected for the third time this season — his second time in two weeks �...