Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Taylor Walls was ejected from Sunday’s game for tapping his helmet.

Walls, 28, was at bat when he was ejected by umpire Nic Lentz in the ninth inning of Tampa Bay’s loss to the Houston Astros on Sunday, June 1. The shortstop became visibly infuriated after the call and needed to be physically held back from Lentz by teammates and bench coach Rodney Linares.

While that might not seem like an ejection-worthy offense to some, Major League Baseball officials interpret a player tapping on their helmet as a sign of disrespect. During spring training, the MLB tested out a method of challenging calls that had batters tap their helmets to initiate a challenge, according to Distractify. The system only applied to the preseason, however, and players were given warnings that tapping their helmets during the regular season could result in an ejection, per the outlet.

After the game, Walls said he had “no recollection” of tapping his helmet until he saw video of the incident. “I just remember going to get into the box, kind of adjusting my helmet and then hearing him mouthing something. I was like, I think I said, ‘Huh? What’d you say? I can’t hear you,’ ” the player said, according to MLB.com.

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“And at that point, I have no recollection of it, but after seeing the video, it looks like I tapped my helmet. But it was totally unintentional, something I was not consciously aware of at all,” he continued.

The shortstop told reporters he remembers Lentz saying, “We’re not doing that. You’re out of here,” and called the ejection “premature” after the game. “Just to be so on edge, thinking that somebody’s just trying to be so disrespectful and show you up at that point, I think it was premature,” Walls said, per MLB.com.

“And so at that point, like, I know that they think that’s disrespectful… I watched the video, and I could see where he may have thought that,” he admitted before defending himself.

The player added, “But I think, like, the context clues around it…I’m looking at him and my body language is saying, like, ‘Dude, I didn’t hear what you’re saying.’ I didn’t say anything to him leading up to this. If I’m gonna tap my helmet, I’m not gonna do it while I’m looking at you, asking you a question, trying to understand what you’re telling me.”

Walls also noted that he can’t recall ever being ejected from a game, per MLB.com. “I don’t really remember any time that I’ve been thrown out of a game since I’ve played baseball,” he said after the Rays’ loss. “I kind of want to apologize to him, if that’s what he thought that I did,” he said.

The player added, “But at the same time, like, dude, after missing a call, you have to kind of understand the situation. You can’t just toss me for something you’re not totally sure that I was doing it intentionally to disrespect him.”