Justin Verlander was called for an automatic ball in the New York Mets' 2-1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday night for throwing his final warmup toss ahead of the third inning with 27 seconds left on the clock, 3 seconds later than allowed.

"He caught me off guard," Verlander said. "I know that you're supposed to get your last warmup pitch in before 30 seconds. It was right about that time and I was about to throw my pitch and I think he started yelling 'One more' and kind of holding up the one [finger]."

Verlander, believing he had one more pitch, threw the warmup before the umpire issued the automatic ball.

"As long as I'm ready by the 8 seconds that the hitter's supposed to step in the box, I think that's plenty of time," he said.