In what has become very commonplace over the past years, yet another incident has involved an MLB umpire ejecting a player for seemingly no reason.
Thursday’s series finale between the Washington Nationals and Detroit Tigers was going along just fine when Nats outfielder Lane Thomas stepped to the plate in the sixth inning.
Thomas struck out looking on a 2-2 count on a pitch that was just outside or caught the zone. Umpire Emil Jiménez thought it was a strike. Thomas did not and looked back at the umpire, seemingly silently, before heading back to the dugout.
Before he could make it to the dugout, he was ejected. By the bottom of the sixth inning, the Nationals TV broadcast had audio of the “incident” and proved that Thomas didn’t say a thing before being run off.
"We literally have video and voice audio. He never said anything that — that's just bad. That makes me even more mad."
Kevin Frandsen responding to umpire Emil Jiménez ejecting Lane Thomas, who wasn't actually arguing. pic.twitter.com/qxc5nDL8uQ
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 13, 2024
“We literally have video and voice audio. He never said anything that — that’s just bad. That makes me even more mad,” announcer Kevin Fransden said.
Thomas doesn’t say anything to Jiménez until he’s already ejected. It seems like Jiménez thought that Thomas said something directed at him, but as Fransden pointed out, that doesn’t seem to be the case either.
“That’s just a bad job by Emil Jiménez right there. Look, he called it a strike. And he said he directed something at him with a bad word. Lane doesn’t say that word. So we have a liar.” pic.twitter.com/jmmEEbXBgL
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 13, 2024
“That’s just a bad job by Emil Jiménez right there. Look, he called it a strike. And he said he directed something at him with a bad word. Lane doesn’t say that word. So we have a liar.”
Washington lost the game 7-2, ending their five-game winning streak.
