Chris Sale slept on it. It obviously did not help.

The Braves left-hander got ejected before the first pitch Sunday, Aug. 9, which takes some doing when he’s not even playing in the game. Sale just could not resist when umpire Dan Merzel and the rest of the crew walked by the visitor’s dugout at Yankee Stadium.

Sale started barking at Merzel as the umpires came out onto the field for Sunday’s series finale. Mezel didn’t waste much time, ejecting the Cy Young Award winner quickly. Before exiting the dugout, however, Sale had a few more words for crew chief Dan Bellino.

Clearly, Sale had not finished his argument from pitching on Saturday night.

In the fifth inning, Yankees outfielder Spencer Jones had just tripled home the tying run. Sale started his first pitch to Austin Wells and Merzel called him for a balk over a slight hitch in his right leg. It was the third balk of Sale’s 16-year career. Jones jogged home. Sale and Walt Weiss argued it for several minutes before Weiss got run with the Yankees up 3-2. It was the first ejection of his managerial career.

Sale is what the league calls a hybrid pitcher, meaning he works from both the windup and the stretch and you can’t tell which by looking at his feet. So he has to say which one is coming out loud to the umpire.

Bellino reiterated that rule after the game and pointed out that Sale had announced it before he struck out Jose Caballero. He did not before pitching to Wells.

Sale, 37, gave up three runs on five hits in six innings Saturday and took his first loss since June 28. He’s 12-7 with a 2.20 ERA in 21 starts. Sunday was his fourth career ejection and his first in almost seven years. The last one came Aug.3, 2019, when Mike Estabrook ran him for arguing balls and strikes in a 9-2 Boston loss – also at Yankee Stadium.