Hanley Ramirez Benched

Hanley Ramirez began his day at the ballpark Monday sharing a few laughs with his teammates and a group of visiting cricket players from New Zealand. It ended with him grabbing his bat and his glove and heading to the Marlins' clubhouse in the bottom of the second inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks, moments after receiving a lecture from manager Fredi Gonzalez in the dugout. It wasn't a foul ball off his ankle that led to the two-time All-Star shortstop's exit from a 5-1 loss that snapped the Marlins' four-game winning streak in front of 10,870 fans at Sun Life Stadium. It was his lack of effort. " We felt whether he's hurt or not hurt, we felt like the effort wasn't there that we wanted,'' said Gonzalez, who had a closed-door meeting with Marlins management, including owner Jeffrey Loria, after the game. "There are 24 guys out there that are busting their butts. Cody Ross got hit with a ball, 95 miles per hour. It wasn't thrown any slower. He stayed in the game making diving plays and battling, got two hits and an RBI. There's some injuries there [with Ramirez]. But we expect an effort from 25 guys on this team and when that doesn't happen we have to do something.'' Ramirez was long gone by the time reporters made it into the clubhouse after the game. Gonzalez said Ramirez didn't offer any excuse for his lack of hustle chasing a ball he booted in the second inning, which helped lead to three Arizona runs. I Think this was very rude and disrespectful act by Hanley Ramirez, I don't care how good you are or how much money you make, it's inexcusable for you to jog after a ball after you kicked into the left field corner. Gonzalez did a great move by taking Hanley out of the game because a lack of effort and not only gave him a a strong lesson but the rest of the team.