These are strange times for the Atlanta Braves baseball club nowadays. In the midst of one of the worst stretches of baseball since 2017, the 2025 Braves have been in clear need of a spark for quite awhile now. Thankfully, that spark may finally been provided by the combination of a bad home plate umpire and Brian Snitker.

Manager Brian Snitker earned his first ejection of the season when he went out to argue balls and strikes with home plate umpire Gabe Morales. Multiple Braves hitters have been visibly frustrated with some pitches off the plate being called strikes for Giants starter Logan Webb. When a borderline pitch from Bryce Elder didn’t get the same treatment, Snitker let Morales hear about it between innings.

Will Snitker getting ejected finally light a fire under the Braves’ offense?

Snitker has been lamented by the fanbase for having a nonchalant look in the dugout during both the good and the bad times for the Braves. Early on in his managerial tenure when the Miami Marlins were constantly hitting Ronald Acuna Jr. over and over, Snitker got ejected for coming to Acuna Jr.’s defense. Normally, that’s been the brunt of Snit’s ejections, defending his players rather than going at the home plate umpire for a bad strike zone.

Sure, it’s not often Snitker earns an ejection, but with how the team is playing and the awful strike zone today this one was certainly needed. The ejection didn’t get any air time since it came between innings, but nonetheless Snit said enough to warrant getting tossed.

Much to the pleasure of Braves fans, Snit’s ejection did at least wake up the team somewhat as Michael Harris belted his first homer since late April in the first at-bat that followed the managers ejection. Logan Webb is a great pitcher already, giving him anything extra off the plate makes the Braves life that much more difficult. Time will tell if Atlanta can rally behind their manager and get back to winning baseball.