Red Sox 3B Pablo Sandoval benched for using Instagram during game
Boston Red Sox third baseman Pablo Sandoval found himself sitting out Thursday’s game against the Atlanta Braves as punishment for using a cellphone during a game the previous night.
Red Sox manager John Farrell banished Sandoval to the bench after learning that Sandoval, in his first year in Boston after signing as a free agent during the offseason, liked photos posted by a woman that showed up on his Instrgram account during Wednesday night’s 5-2 loss to the Braves.
A blogger noticed the activity on Sandoval’s feed during the game. Sandoval said he checked his phone after a visit to the clubhouse bathroom.
“It’s one thing I let my teammates down. Ain’t going to happen no more, so I learned from that,” Sandoval said. “I know I f—-ed up. I made a mistake, I learned from that. I’m a human being, I made a mistake, so I apologize to my teammates, to the team, to the organization, the fans support.
“This is a thing that I pushed the button at the wrong time. I hit a ‘like.’ I was in the bathroom, I pushed it at the wrong time. … I just grabbed my phone and checked it.”
Sandoval said he had never done anything like that previously during a game. Using a cellphone during games violates team rules.
Afterward, he apologized to Farrell and general manager Ben Cherington but said he wasn’t fined by the team.
“I take the punishment,” he said. “When you grow up, you learn from a lot of things. You grow up every single day in your life. You learn from that. It’s their decision to make. I broke the team rules. I should be punished.”
Sandoval expects to return to the lineup on Friday for the struggling Red Sox, who had lost eight of their last nine games heading into Thursday night.
