Blue Jays manager John Schneider was not a fan of what he believed to be an unusually long warmup for Dodgers two-way star and Game 7 starter Shohei Ohtani on Saturday night.

After the top of the first inning, in which Ohtani had stepped up to the plate as the Dodgers' leadoff hitter, the Japanese star emerged from the dugout with under a minute left in the countdown parameters for pitcher warmups, which are designated to be two minutes and 55 seconds for postseason games, per MLB rules.

Ohtani seemed to take about five minutes to warmup, to the chagrin of Schneider.

Both Fox play-by-play announcer Joe Davis and color analyst John Smoltz were surprised at how much time Ohtani was given to warm up, particularly in light of his late emergeence from the dugout.

After Ohtani was again seemingly given extra time to warm up before the second inning, Fox brought in former MLB umpire Mark Carlson to explain why this seemed to be the case.

"Actually, obviously Shohei's a very unique player that he's a two-way player," Carlson said. "And as a pitcher, if he ends the inning at-bat, on-base or on deck, he gets the discretion of the umpires to allow him to have the appropriate time to pitch."

When Smoltz pushed back and suggested that Ohtani was "taking advantage" of the umpire's discretion, Carlson explained that he believed the umpires were being "proactive to as to avoid a potential injury given it was the World Series.”

Indeed, MLB rules state that "if the pitcher is on base, on deck or at bat when the inning ends, the timer begins when the pitcher leaves the dugout for the mound."

Clearly, Schneider felt Ohtani and the Dodgers were bending those rules.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Blue Jays Manager Complains Shohei Ohtani Got Too Much Time to Warm Up Between Innings.

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