Dave Martinez Barks At Ump, Gets On All Fours

It was a Dog Day Afternoon for Washington Nationals skipper Dave Martinez.

Martinez had himself a viral moment on Thursday after getting ejected from the Nats' game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The coach was criticizing home plate umpire Doug Eddings before getting the boot — stating his case that too many strikes were getting called on low pitches, some possibly out of the strike zone.

To further make his case, Martinez got down on all fours to point out to Eddings where the pitches were landing. It was a last-minute argument by Dave Martinez, who'd already been kicked out of the game by then ... so why the heck not?

It was worth the price of admission for the Thursday afternoon ballgame.

WATCH:

Martinez tried to make his case after the 5-3 loss.

"I wasn't the one screaming in the dugout,” Martinez said.

He added, "It was loud. You could hear everything. We are in a crucial situation right then. The call was bad. Nothing against the umpires, but I am going to protect my players, and that's all there is to it. He takes a pitch. He does a good job. Maybe he gets to the next pitch, who knows. Maybe he gets a base hit and we are back in the ball game. It's just a tough situation."

With the Nationals currently riding a bad streak (losing their last 14 of 17 games), Dave Martinez perhaps tried to get a moral victory for his group.

Nationals right-hander Jake Irvin sounded encouraged by Martinez's outrageous reaction.

"Heck yeah. That's Davey standing up for guys that have been working really, really hard to right this ship," Irvin said after the game.

"Here's our leader, man. When a guy comes out and battles for us like that, it's motivational. We see it, see how much he cares, and we are going to keep working hard, that's for sure."