Joe Girardi had more than a few things to say to home-plate umpire Tony Randazzo after he called Chris Dickerson out on strikes to end the fourth inning of Tuesday night's 5-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, but after the game, Girardi turned into Joey Clams.

"I'm not going to comment on Randazzo," he said when asked what led to his ejection on the play, in which Jayson Nix was called safe stealing second -- only to learn Dickerson had already been punched out, ending the inning.

Informed by the beat crew that that would not be a sufficient explanation for an extremely confusing play, Girardi began to grow testy, and then angry.

"You saw what happened," Girardi said. "I don't think it does any good to comment on it."

The manager was then told it would be generally assumed he got tossed for arguing balls and strikes, a no-no and usually an automatic ejection.

"Don't assume," he said. "Just write the Yankees' manager refused to comment."

Told the entire situation was unclear from the press box -- Had Dickerson called timeout? Was the pitch that far out of the strike zone? -- Girardi snapped. "It is unclear. You're absolutely right, it is unclear."

And then he cut off any further discussion. "I'm not going to comment. All right? That's it. All right? Go ask them."

So one of us did. And to the surprise of no one, the issue was what it appeared to be.

"There was yelling out of the dugout," said crew chief Brian Gorman, who was working second base. "When Tony looked in, he told him to knock it off and Joe continued to yell. He was ejected for arguing pitches. He was arguing the last pitch of the at-bat."

One mystery solved. The other? Only Joe knows.