Arizona Diamondbacks manager Chip Hale made his opinion pretty clear Tuesday: If Pittsburgh Pirates relief pitcher Arquimedes Caminero can't control his pitches, he doesn't belong in the major leagues.
Caminero was ejected in the eighth inning of Tuesday's 12-1 win after hitting a pair of Arizona batters in the head. Caminero drilled second baseman Jean Segura, who was ducking, in the side of the head with a 96 mph fastball in the seventh.
Segura was sent to the hospital for tests after showing signs of a concussion.
In the eighth, Caminero hit Nick Ahmed with an 89 mph splitter. The ball struck Ahmed's jaw after hitting him in the shoulder.
"You know what, when guys get hit in the head and they get hit in the face, there's no place for that in the game," Hale told reporters after the game. "And if the guy is not trying to do it, then he shouldn't be here at this level. If you can't have enough control to not hit people up there, it's just not acceptable -- especially twice in one game."
Caminero has struggled all season, walking 13 and hitting three in just 17 1/3 innings of work.
"Guys need to keep the ball down and away from the head area," Hale said. "If a guy can't do it, then he has no business being up here in the major leagues."
Hale said Ahmed was OK, "but he's got a nice little seam mark on his chin."
Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said Caminero wasn't intentionally trying to hit the batters -- the Pirates' David Freese was hit by Arizona pitcher Evan Marshall in the seventh -- and that his command just got away from him.
"That's the last thing he wants to do," Hurdle told reporters. "He was a little tentative after those, the pitches the first time, then he got back in some rhythm, then he lost it again."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
