Pablo Sandoval has been benched by the Red Sox for using Instagram during Wednesday night’s game.
Sandoval was benched for Boston’s 5-2 win by manager John Farrell after he admitted to “liking” a woman’s photo that appeared on his Instagram news feed, according to ESPN .
A blogger from Barstool Sports was the first to notice the third basemen’s social media activity and took to Twitter to share his observation. Apparently, Sandoval had gotten his cell phone out when he returned to the clubhouse to use the restroom.
Pablo later met with Farrell and the general manager Ben Cherington, admitting his cell phone usage and apologizing for his actions. According to the Associated Press , the Red Sox will not fine or suspend Sandoval . However, it is not known if the Major League Baseball will discipline the 2012 World Series MVP.
“From our standpoint he’s benched tonight. I don’t know of any further discipline at this point in time or if there’s anything else coming down from MLB, but we’ve also handled some other things internally on the matter,” Farrell said on Wednesday.
“I know I f—ed up,” Sandoval said in a statement on Thursday. “I made a mistake [Wednesday]. 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.
ICYMI: Pablo Sandoval was benched Thursday for liking a woman’s Instagram pics during a game: http://t.co/TUuOwyOlHU pic.twitter.com/Y0SS2Yn96C
— ESPN (@espn) June 19, 2015
“This is a thing that I pushed the [‘like’] button at the wrong time,” he added. “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 has since made his Instagram profile private, and says that this was an isolated incident.
“It was the first time, so I take the mistake and learn from that. I move forward to try not to do it anymore. It’s one thing I let my teammates down,” he said. “Ain’t going to happen no more, so I learned from that.”
Pablo also said he knew the team’s rules about using their cell phones during their games, and he agrees he should have been punished.
“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.”
“It’s a one-day thing. So I move forward to tomorrow to be on the field and help my team to win games,” he said.
[Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images]
