The St. Louis Cardinals didn’t get many innings out of starter John Lackey on Wednesday night against the Cincinnati Reds.

The big right-hander was abruptly ejected mid-batter by home plate umpire Tom Hallion just four pitches into the third inning for arguing balls and strikes. Throughout his short outing, Lackey appeared to be unhappy with the strike zone, but Lackey let his temper get the best of him after a 2-1 pitch to Brayan Peña that he thought was a strike, but was ruled a ball.

The somewhat strange sequence of events — that appeared to escalate quickly — is not yet embeddable on MLB.com, but CBSSports.com has a GIF of the incident.

“Lackey was warned to quit arguing balls and strikes,” Hallion said after the game, via MLB.com. “When I came out and I gave him a warning, that was it, knock it off. And he continued to argue, which got him ejected.”

Lackey, who allowed two runs on four hits during the Cards’ eventual 4-2 loss, didn’t believe his actions warranted getting tossed.

“I threw a ball that was up, and I said, ‘If that’s up, the other one’s not down,'” Lackey said. “And then he came up and kind of started yelling back towards me, and I kind of got back up on the mound, and about as loud as I’m talking now, I said, ‘One or the other,’ just kind of to myself getting back up on the mound. There’s no way he could’ve heard what I said.

“I didn’t say any cuss words towards him or anything like that. … I don’t think what I said was worth getting thrown out for, that’s for sure.”

The Cardinals’ second loss in a row to the Reds cut their lead in the National League Central to 3 1/2 games.