Washington Nationals outfielder Lane Thomas was the victim of the one of the most bizarre ejections when he was tossed for simply looking at the umpire.
In the sixth inning of the Nationals’ Thursday game against the Detroit Tigers, Thomas struck out looking at a high and away fastball. Thomas felt the call was questionable and took a glance at the home plate ump Emil Jimenez. Apparently, that crossed a line and he was immediately ejected.
A stunned Thomas held his arms out in disbelief.
“Are you kidding me?” Thomas could be heard saying. “What do you mean?”
The Nationals’ broadcast revisited the incident moments later, revealing that another mic picked up the exact moment Thomas was thrown out.
“That’s not — what?” Thomas said to Jimenez. “Are you shitting me?”
MASN’s announcers were furious with the ejection.
“We literally have video and voice audio,” Kevin Frandsen said. “He never said anything that — that’s just bad! That makes me even more mad!”
“And an inning where we had high hopes with 2-3-4 coming up, ends in a hurry,” Bob Carpenter said. “Lane Thomas gone for the rest of this game. Yikes.”
There have been more than a handful of questionable ejections in the MLB this season. In April, Yankees manager Aaron Boone was thrown out when a fan yelled at an ump from the stands and the ump thought it was Boone.
Nationals reporter Bobby Blanco noted online that Jimenez is a relatively new ump. This season is just his second in the MLB.
Audio and video of Lane Thomas’ ejection. He literally doesn’t say a word before he’s tossed by home plate umpire Emil Jimenez, who is a second-year ump. pic.twitter.com/sahRKUz32f
— Bobby Blanco (@Bobby_Blanco) June 13, 2024
Watch above via MASN.
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