The Windup Newsletter ⚾ | This is The Athletic’s MLB newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Windup directly in your inbox.Nobody move; the umpires are at it again.Plus: Beef between former teammates, a continued defensive outage in New York and a Power Rankings look at some second-half storylines. I’m Levi Weaver — welcome to The Windup!Ump Show: Contreras was ejected? For what?At the risk of becoming the “boo umps” newsletter, what on earth was Nic Lentz thinking?In last night’s 6-3 win over the Nationals, Willson Contreras hit a home run in the bottom of the first. After rounding the bases, he could later be seen in the dugout openly weeping.Contreras’ home country, Venezuela, was struck by two earthquakes over 7.0 on the Richter scale last week. The death toll is over 1,700, and it’s still rising. Understandably, he is a bit emotional.You might think, with that prelude, that Contreras had an outburst, snapped at an umpire or gesticulated wildly to get himself ejected.Nope.After a check swing in the second inning (ruled a strike by Lentz at first base), Contreras silently walked toward the dugout, hardly showing any reaction until he finally grimaced, shook his head and — looking toward the dugout, not the umpire — casually tapped his helmet, as if to imply that a review would have acquitted him.Eagle-eyed Lentz saw the motion and tossed Contreras from the game, tapping his own head in explanation for the reaction.Look, Contreras isn’t without his moments of over-emoting. For a guy who does perhaps crowd the plate a little bit, I’ve found his reactions to being hit by a pitch a little over the top. But in this case, the ejection was absolutely unnecessary and, frankly, embarrassing for Lentz. Contreras, to his credit, came out and pleaded his case politely after interim manager Chad Tracy had a conversation with the umpire. (He was way more chill than Taylor Walls last year — when Lentz ejected him for the exact same thing.)So, kudos to the Red Sox catcher for keeping his cool, particularly on a night when his emotions were otherwise pretty evident. Hopefully Lentz can find some zen.Middle Relief: Midseason storylinesThis week’s Power Rankings crew zooms out to look at storylines worth watching as teams embark on the second half of the season. Here are the sections on our Nos. 4 and 5 teams, the Braves and Rays, respectively. Atlanta BravesRecord: 49-33Last Power Ranking: 2Something to watch for: The search for starting pitchingThe Braves are still firmly in first place and given 94.5 percent odds by FanGraphs to make the playoffs. So, why does it feel like the sky is falling?In the past three weeks, Atlanta has gone 4-12. Baseball’s best record no more. The lineup has lacked consistency in Ronald Acuña Jr.’s absence, yet the team’s glaring need is front-line starting pitching. Chris Sale is still compiling ace results — 2.10 ERA in 90 innings — but can’t do this alone. Bryce Elder is fading. Spencer Strider was shut down. Spencer Schwellenbach is slowly ramping up. Reynaldo López is on a pitch count after returning to the rotation. Alex Anthopoulos has worked miracles at trade deadlines past. This may be the time for him to make a splash and land an(other) ace. — Stephen Nesbitt