Torey Lovullo gets ejected after umpire issues D-backs a warning
Aug 20, 2017, 2:53 PM | Updated: 5:55 pm
“He’s trying to find a way to wake up his ballclub and he’s using every club in the bag.” — Steve Berthiaume on Torey Lovullo’s ejection. pic.twitter.com/FBoPnTTZGH
— FOX Sports Arizona (@FOXSPORTSAZ) August 20, 2017
Safe to say Diamondbacks skipper Torey Lovullo isn’t feeling for MLB umpires.
Not as his team gave up nine runs in the first inning Sunday afternoon against the Twins, and especially not after umpire John Tumpane issued Arizona’s bench a warning after a Minnesota pitcher nearly hit D-back Adam Rosales with an inside pitch.
On a day some umps across MLB were wearing white bands to protest what they call “abusive player behavior,” it was Lovullo finding himself verbally thrashing Tumpane before earning an ejection in the seventh inning.
Tumpane warned both teams after Twins pitcher sent a message to Rosales with a 96-mph heater well inside.
The play appeared to be a retaliation for the prior inning, when D-backs pitcher Braden Shipley plunked Chris Gimenez, who earlier smacked a home run off of Shipley.
“I never really quite understood that, where if you feel like there’s intent the first time, then you should eject the pitcher,” Lovullo told media after the game, according to FOX Sports Arizona’s Todd Walsh. “And then you allow it happen twice and you warn. I never quite got that.
“I just wanted clarification on that and (Tumpane) said I’m not allowed to argue that. I said, I need to tell you my point of view, and he said he had enough.”
Lovullo got his two cents in before storming back to the dugout on his way out of the game, and former Twins manager Ron Gardenhire took over for the D-backs.
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