SEATTLE -- Keon Broxton has had trouble making contact at the plate in his brief time with the Mariners, but the speedy outfielder chose the wrong time to connect when he inadvertently hit home-plate umpire Manny Gonzalez with one of his batting gloves after a called third strike in Monday night's 5-4 loss to the Yankees at T-Mobile Park, earning his first career ejection.

Broxton was miffed at the strike call on a 93-mph fastball by J.A. Happ on the outside edge of the plate and reacted by tossing aside his bat, then knocking his batting helmet backward off his head. He then flung one of his batting gloves backward toward home plate, hitting Gonzalez in the face.

Gonzalez wasted no time giving Broxton the heave-ho, with Mallex Smith replacing him in right field to start the third inning.

“I didn’t know I hit him until I turned around and he told me,” Broxton said. “I just heard the crowd after a couple seconds after I let the batting glove release. I turned around and he said, ‘You hit me in the face. You’re out.’ I was like, ‘Argh. I did not mean to do that at all.'

"The odds of that happening are very slim. It’s really unfortunate it happened, but it’s all on me. That’s a lesson learned. I can handle things in a better way. I could have just walked to the dugout and put my stuff down and gone back out there, regardless of how I felt about the call. I take full responsibility for it.

“It’s a bad look. It’s a bad look for the organization and a bad look for me. I definitely regret doing it. I learned from it. Now I know. You just can’t do stuff like that. That’s not how baseball should be played anyway.”

The 29-year-old Broxton was claimed off waivers from the Orioles in late July and has hit .173 with 27 strikeouts in 52 plate appearances in 19 games with the Mariners.

Manager Scott Servais went out to the plate after Broxton was ejected, but there was nothing to be done.

“He certainly didn’t agree with the call, but it was an accident,” Servais said. “The umpire knew it was an accident. It’s just one of those things. You can’t do that with the equipment.”